wedding by nightfall
by Asrialth
Summary: When the Volturi capture Jasper and Edward, Alice and Bella follow them to Italy to safe them. But things don't go as planned. Fights,destruction and death follow. And of course the right amount of humor and romance.
1. Chapter 1 : When happiness is blown away

Chapter one.

The telephone was already at my ear before it buzzed.

"Edward?" I asked.

"As if you didn't already know that," he teased.

"Hm," I merely answered.

"Then you probably know why I'm calling too?"

I pretended to be innocent. "No. What's up?"

I heard Edward sighing on the other side of the connection.

"Alice," Edward began, "can I have Carlisle, please?"

"Why?" I asked.

"That's really none of your business."

"Didn't need to get so pissed," I told him, but quickly ran out of the room and knocked on Carlisle's office door.

"Come in." Carlisle's warm voice said. I opened the door and walked into the expensive furnished room. I gave the phone to Carlisle.

I stayed in the door opening, trying to hear something of the conversation. I couldn't help it that I was such a nosy person. Of course I had known what this conversation would be about a month ago, but it was still nice to hear.

"Congratulations!," Carlisle said, "Say that to Bella too for me!… Do you think so? … Yes, and I'm sure Esmé will love it too… Charlie is okay with that? I can surely take the day off…. I'll ask Alice."

He hung up and watched me. He didn't say something, he probably already knew that I knew.

"Bella said yes!" I sang, jumping up and down on the doorstep, "And I'm allowed to do the wedding!"

Carlisle laughed. He was very fond of Bella, just like the rest of the family. We all loved her. Well, not all of us, because Rose still had a problem with Bella. But I knew (I had seen it the day that Rosalie had talked to Bella when she was staying here) that Rose would get over it and that one day she would really actually like Bella. I tried to tell Bella that once, but she had doubted my vision and only made a sarcastic remark.

I ran out of Carlisle's room and ran to the garden where Jasper and Emmett were having another wrestling match. I was too enthusiastic to use the stairs and the door, so I jumped out of the window in the hall and landed lithely in the soft green grass.

"What's up with you, Alice?" Emmett asked, while pausing for a moment trying to push Jasper to the ground.

Jasper took advantage of the short pause and threw Emmett of him. They eyed each other suspiciously for a moment but then seemed to decide that whatever I had to tell was more important than their little fight. Their heads turned to me.

"It's Bella!" I said.

Jasper's eyes turned big. "Is she alright?"

I chuckled. "That depends on if you mean it mentally or physically. Physically, she's alright. As alright as Bella physically can ever be. Mentally, she's not." I grinned.

Emmett growled. Obviously, he wanted to know the big news. I decided to let the guys wait just a few more seconds. If they both thought a little bit, they knew what I was talking about.

"Skip to the point, Alice," Emmett said. I sighed theatrically, pretending to be irritated.

"Edward proposed to Bella half a year ago, remember?" I started.

"She said yes? Finally?" Jasper said, smiling. It was good to know that my Jasper was still a lot smarter than Emmett. "Good for her! And good for Edward!"

Emmett took over my enthusiastic mood. He didn't jump up and down as I had done, but he stretched ands strained his fingers as if he was preparing for a fight.

"Relax, guys," Jasper said. He was happy too, but not as enthusiastic as we were. He was happy in a serene kind of way. He loved Bella as a sister, and he was looking forward to her becoming family just as I was.

Suddenly, I felt calmer. Emmett reflected my look of bewilderment, before we both eyed Jasper suspiciously. Jasper merely laughed.

"I'm getting out of here," Emmett said, and he ran into the woods, so fast that he was out of my view in one short second. In my head, I suddenly saw an image of Edward and Bella together, while Emmett ran in.

"Emmett, come back here! They need some privacy!" I shouted after him. All I heard was Emmett's teasing laughter, but the image in my head changed, and Edward and Bella were alone again. Emmett went hunting instead.

I turned around and saw Esmé standing just a couple of feet away from Jasper and me. She was smiling a warm smile that was typical for Esmé. She looked happy and proud. I knew she was happy because Bella would soon have the Cullen last name. But she was proud that Edward finally got married for the first time.

I couldn't disagree with her. Edward had been alone for too long before Bella had come into his life. Of course, he was my dear brother. He was even my dearest brother. The one with whom I shared practically everything. We had both been the outsiders of the family: he knowing everything around him, I knowing everything that was going to be around me. Then I had found Jasper, and I was less and outsider… Edward claimed to be happy the way he was, but we all knew he missed something. And then he had met Bella. His life turned. His mood turned. He was happy.

Jasper interrupted my thoughts while he grabbed my hand. I looked up and saw his face had a questioning look.

"The wedding's in a month," I answered Jasper's unspoken question. Jasper and I didn't have to say many things to each other. We understood each other so well, that our conversations usually contained few words. "Edward promised to change her after the wedding, remember, and Bella wants to be changed before her birthday."

Jasper nodded. He pushed me gently at my small inside the house, and Esmé followed us.

The phone rang.

"They've told Charlie. He was very disappointed and threw a Charlie-esque fit, and after that told them he wants to talk to Carlisle. He wants to have dinner here tonight," I explained, my words coming out rapidly so they were said before Esmé had time to pick up the phone.

Esmé picked up the phone and smiled when she heard Charlie's brusque voice on the other side. The poor man still had his own short wedding in his head. He surely was afraid that this one would last as long as his. He didn't realize that Bella's and Edward's would not just fade away, and that even if Bella would like to run away from Edward in a year, she still wouldn't be able to come home because she would probably kill and eat Charlie then.

"Hi, Charlie…. Really?... Oh that's great!" Esmé spoke through the phone, pretending not to know about the wedding. Surely Charlie would be hurt if he found out that Bella and Edward had called us first. "congratulations! We're going to be family! … You don't agree? … I can see your point, Charlie, but-…. Let's talk about his over dinner, shall we? … Yes, see you in an hour!... Bye"

Esmé sighed. "Charlie is not happy." She explained unnecessarily, "He and Bella are going to be here in an hour. Edward's coming here now. Jasper, can you go to the supermarket to buy some food?"

Jasper looked at her incredulously. "Mum. I have no idea what humans eat. How am I supposed to know what to buy?"

Esmé thought about that for a moment, and then her face cleared. "Then you buy a book about cooking first and then you buy the food that's in the recipe."

"Isn't it easier to order some food from Port Angeles?" I asked.

"Honey, you can't expect me to order food for our guests?" Esmé answered.

"Can you cook?" Carlisle asked, who appeared on top of the stairs. He had heard our conversation, for he had already changed into a tux.

The phone ran again. I knew it was Bella and I knew why she was calling, so I picked up.

"Hey, Bells!" I said.

"Alice!" Bella's voice sounded very nervous. I imagined she now had red blushes on her cheeks and a frantic look in her eyes.

"Congratulations!" I dared to say. I smiled, for I knew this was exactly what she didn't want to talk about.

"Thanks," Bella said, though she didn't sound grateful at all. She sounded like she was able to hit someone right. If only her native dog was around right now. "Charlie's coming for dinner at you place, though you probably already know that."

"Hm?" I answered.

"What are you going to serve him?"

"Uhm. Food?" I asked innocently.

"I'm sorry Alice. Humans don't eat other humans."

"We don't eat humans either." I answered, still pretending to be oblivious to what she wanted to say.

"You know what I mean!" Bella answered impatiently, "You can't cook!"

"You're right!" I said, and I truly sounded shocked. It was faked, of course. "What should we do?"

"Shall I come over?" she offered, "I can go to the supermarket first."

"Jasper's getting food now. Edward knows how to cook and he'll be here in a minute. Just stay calm, Bella. Breathe. Relax."

Yeah sure. Like Bella was able to relax for even a moment in the next month.

"You know, Bells?" I asked her.

"What?" her voice sounded hoarse. She probable already knew what I was going to say.

"You're going to get married in a month!" I said, sounding happy.

"Ugh!" Bella groaned, and hung up without another word. I snickered.

The rest of the hour, Esmé and I were working on setting the table. I knew it would look like a party where the president would come over, but I didn't care. I loved to do this.

Our dining room was getting a complete make-over. In the garage, Emmett and Carlisle were working on creating a new table. (Rose had told them that the old one looked old-fashioned.)

Jasper had returned with the food and was now trying to help Edward with cooking. Edward was in the best mood ever. I hadn't seen him like this since that day that he'd showed Bella the house for the first time.

He was singing songs, so loudly that we could here it everywhere in the house. He was almost dancing around, and he looked as if he would hug even Jane or Felix if they would walk in now. (Of which I hoped they wouldn't.)

Five minutes before I knew that Charlie and Bella were arriving, I ran to my room, and changed into blue jeans (very expensive, designed by an Italian designer) and a beautiful red top, of which I knew that Bella loved it. I heard Rose pacing in the hallway next to my door and I walked towards her.

"Everything alright?" I asked her, sounding concerned.

Rose's beautiful face had a guilty-looking expression.

"I'm trying so hard to be glad for them…" she said, not able to finish her sentence. But I knew what she meant. She wasn't glad about the marriage. But not because she didn't like Bella.

"You still don't want Bella to be changed, do you?" I asked.

Rosalie shook her head. "It's not that I don't want her to be part of our family. I want Edward to be happy. But I just can't… be happy for her to be eternally damned."

"I understand, Rose," I said, and it was true. I didn't feel that way too, but at least I understood Rose's motives. I squeezed her shoulder to comfort her, but then said: "They're at the porch. It's time."

Rosalie sighed one last time and walked off the stairs. I saw that while Esmé walked to the front door to open it, Carlisle and Emmett quickly set the new table again. Rose had been right. The room looked better now.

Charlie and Bella came in, followed by Esmé. Charlie gazed into the room, his mouth half open with awe. He had never been here before. Bella was looking around the room too, but not because it looked so big. No, she was looking for Edward. He came out of the kitchen, and walked towards Bella's side.

I noticed that he squeezed her hand shortly. Bella's frantic look didn't leave her eyes.

"Good evening, Charlie," Carlisle said, and he turned around and showed Charlie the dining room.

I sat at the table next to Bella. On her other side, Charlie sat. Edward sat on the other side of the table, still almost shining with joy. Bella was slightly happy too, but mostly she was just nervous. I knew that it was difficult for her to have Charlie for dinner with us. Not because we were dangerous, but because she was afraid Charlie would make a fool of himself.

"How're you feeling?" I asked Bella, whispering in her ear.

"nervous," she answered, whispering too. Like I didn't already see that.

"It's going to be alright." I patted her back, and she smiled slightly. Edward winked at her.

Carlisle and Charlie were talking about the pros and contras of the wedding.

"Bella's too young!" Charlie half-shouted, "Don't you think Edward is, too?"

"Edward is old enough to be able to make his own decision. Whatever that may be, we agree, for it's what he thinks it's right." Carlisle answered in a calm voice.

"Uhm, dad?" Bella said, "Can't you discuss this later? I mean, when Edward and I are, like, not around?"

Charlie was obviously still angry with her. He looked at her for a short moment, but then turned his head towards Carlisle again as if she hadn't spoken. Bella put her head in her hands. Charlie was hurting her. I could see this was more difficult for her than she was showing. I wanted to comfort her, to show her that it was going to be alright, but I hadn't seen it yet. Charlie was changing his mind every minute, so I couldn't see what his final opinion about the marriage was going to be.

I saw that Edward had to keep himself from walking to Bella's side. I called his name in my head.

_Edward_

He looked up, meeting my eyes, with a questioning look on his face.

_She'll be alright. Just stay there and let Charlie have some moments to thin__k things over_

Edward sighed, then nodded so slightly that only I could see it. I knew how much he wanted to be alone with Bella right now.

"I still think that eighteen is too young," Charlie said, "Such marriages always end after a week."

Emmett chuckled. Rose raised her perfect eyebrows. Jasper sent a calming wave towards Charlie.

Carlisle sighed. "Charlie, whatever happens, you can't stop the two of them. They're old enough to decide for themselves. They don't need parental supervision anymore." With these words, he ended the discussion. For now, at least. I knew they would continue after dinner, in private, and that, without Charlie knowing, everyone would be able to hear. I hoped that Edward would take Bella out of the house then.

Charlie held his mouth. He looked less angry than before. I shot Jasper a thankful smile. He winked.

The dinner continued and the less formal conversations started.

"So, Bella, why did you suddenly say yes to Edward?" I whispered in her ear.

"Mind your own business," Edward hissed. Bella seemed to agree with him. When she spoke, her voice was louder than she had intended because of her nervousness.

"Yeah, Alice, don't you have a wedding to arrange?"

If I would have been able to, I would have flushed now.

"You're kidding me!" Bella nearly shrieked, everyone was looking at us now, "you're already done?"

I quickly composed my face, but I was sure I didn't fool Bella. So I shrugged.

"I've known this for some months already…" I whispered, so Charlie wouldn't be able to hear. Bella looked at me incredulously, and was about to make an angry reply, I'm sure, when suddenly the table fade away in front of my eyes.

_I saw two people. They were of our kind. I recognized them immediately. Felix. Jane._

_Stupid Alice! I thought to myself. Why did I have to bring them up just before dinner?_

_They were running through Forks, and I knew where they were heading. The lonely road, with forest on both sides. Then the garden with the red truck in it. The green porch._

_They were heading for Charlie's._

"_Her smell is all over the place," Jane said, "She's very recently been here in her human form."_

_Felix chuckled. "Now we don't have a choice but to kill her." Jane nodded._

"Alice?" I heard Bella's voice, coming from very far away. She was whispering in my ear. I felt Jasper's hand on mine. But I couldn't turn back to the present. The vision was too strong. It had been what I'd been waiting for. "You alright?" Bella's voice again.

_Demetri emerged from the shadows on the other side of the road._

"_I can't track her," he said. He looked angry. Jane nodded. She had already expected something like that._

"_Let's wait for nightfall," Jane ordered, but Felix shook his head._

"_Then the others will find out about this, and will hide her," he said._

"_Hm," Jane said, "none of our powers work on Bella. We must wait for Alec and the others. Then we can go to the Cullen's house and force them to talk and tell them where she is."_

"_Aro said we weren't supposed to use violence on them."_

"_Not when not necessary." Jane said, and an angelic smile appeared on her face._

The vision was over. Six pair of vampire eyes were looking at me questioningly. Bella's eyes were a mixture of concern and eagerness to know what I saw.

"Are you alright, Alice?" Charlie asked, surely concerned. I quickly nodded, composing my face, and pretending nothing had happened.

"Yeah, everything is alright," I said, while shoving some more of my dinner on my lap, "It's just that I just remembered an appointment. Our friends from Italy are coming over next week."


	2. Chapter 2 : when my nightmares come true

**Hey people, so this is chapter two. I hope you'll enjoy it. Some people have already asked me to update soon, and I'll do my best. Unfortunately, I'll be on a Holiday for some weeks, starting the day after tomorrow, so I will be able to post only when I come back. I'll write a lot when I'm away, though, and I'll post it the moment I've returned to Holland. I hope you all enjoy! And please review ;)**

Chapter two

After dinner, Carlisle and I did our best to send Charlie home without offending him.

"I'm sorry, Charlie," Carlisle said, "It has been a nice evening. It's just that Esmé has a headache and wants to go to bed early, and tomorrow we have to arrange some things for our… guests."

Charlie nodded. Of course he understood. I knew how much respect he had for Carlisle and Esmé and I knew he would like to give her some rest when she was ill. Not that she really was ill of course, she was standing in the backyard with Rose talking about a solution to our problems.

"I hope Esmé will be feeling better soon. Have a nice evening!" Charlie said, and he wanted to turn around, but I said: "Charlie. Aren't you forgetting something?"

Charlie looked at me as if he didn't know what I was talking about. He didn't fool me, of course.

"Your daughter?" I reminded him.

"Oh! Right!" He said, "well, she knows the way home." He walked out of the house. I shook my head sadly. It wasn't as if this decision hadn't been difficult enough for Bella anyway. Now her dad had to be unkind too, at the moment she needed him the most?

When the door was closed, Carlisle turned to me.

"We'll have a family meeting in the living room in half an hour. I need to talk to Esmé, and I think you need to talk to Bella."

I nodded and bit my lip. What should we do with Bella? I wondered. Edward had told us that when the Volturi would come, we would just hide Bella, and they'd leave again. Now, when I thought things over, I thought it wouldn't be so easy. What if the Volturi didn't stop so quickly? What if they would do what Felix wanted? What if Aro wanted Bella so dearly that he was willing to kill us? I had heard Jane and Felix discuss that. I knew how much Felix wanted Bella too, and how much he hated Edward…

I felt the sudden urge to scream and hit something, but I resisted. I still had some dignity left. Instead, I thought it would be the right time to talk to Bella and Edward.

I sped to Edward's room, where he and Bella were sitting on the huge bed that was standing against the left wall.

Edward's face had a look on it which remembered me of one he had had in the spring Holiday, now two years ago, when Bella had been chased by James. Edward looked a bit frantic, like he was willing to grab Bella and make a run for it. Which might be exactly what he was planning.

_Don't even think about it_ I thought.

He looked at me, still holding Bella tightly, cradled against his chest.

"Why not?" he answered my thought.

_Perhaps they won't stop when they can't find Bella_

"What did you see exactly?" Edward asked, kissing the top of Bella's head.

"Yeah," Bella asked, her eyes were wild with fear, "what _did_ you see? Are they coming here?"

I nodded. "In a week." Bella's eyes widened, and, as always, I tried to comfort her. "But there is no need to worry. It will be alright. We know how to deal with this."

Edward looked at me questioningly. He knew I was lying.

"Right," he said, and stroke her hair, "we will just stick to the plan we had last summer, which is hide you, and then it will all be alright. Perhaps Emmett will even get the chance to kill some vampires, like he always wishes." He smiled, but the smile didn't touch his eyes. Bella, too, wasn't fooled.

"It's worse than you'd thought, isn't it?" she asked, her eyes turned to me, "you saw that they don't think that finding me is enough?"

I decided I couldn't lie to her anymore. Bella had always been a hard one too fool.

"Right. I've seen that they will come here, with Jane, Alec, Felix, Demetri and some more." Bella shivered and Edward stroke her hair once more, "and I've seen that they will find out where you live."

"Charlie!" Bella choked out. "We must save him!"

"It'll be alright, Bella," Edward repeated, and kissed the top of her head., "won't it, Alice?"

"It'll be perfectly alright," I answered, "We have to go downstairs for a family meeting in twenty minutes."

Edward nodded. "I want to know what Carlisle thinks," he said. He knew what I was thinking, so he knew exactly everything about my vision. I was going to have to watch him very carefully this week, so he wouldn't do anything stupid.

"Back to the fun subject," I said, "what about the marriage?"

"Fun?" Bella muttered, and I smiled.

"Yes, it _is_ fun, Bella. Marriage is supposed to be something to celebrate, not something to mourn for." I answered.

"Yeah," Edward added, "you might hurt your fiancé's feelings."

Bella looked at the ground. "Edward, you know it's not because of you. We've talked about it."

I immediately regretted bringing the topic up. She was already feeling sad and guilty, and now I was making it worse.

"I know, honey," Edward said, "I didn't mean it. Don't feel guilty."

"What's the exact date planned for the wedding?" I asked them, trying to change the subject.

"As soon as possible!" Bella said in a weird voice. It nearly sounded as a hysteric shriek.

Both Edward's and my head turned toward Bella. "What's that?" Edward asked, "You wanted to postpone it as much as possible!"

Bella looked at the floor again. Obviously, she didn't want to talk about whatever motive she had. I could guess though.

"Bella," I said, "changing you is not the solution. We have to do that when we have a moment of peace. As a newborn, you are of no use. We've told you that before."

Edward's body turned rigid when he found out what I meant.

"Not because you're afraid," he reminded Bella once again. Bella nodded. I had to watch her too, because she was able to do stupid things as much as Edward was. This was going to be a hard week. I sighed.

"I'm going to talk to Jasper," I said, and I turned around and left the room, leaving the both of them stressed on the bed.

I reached my room within a second, I was quicker because I was stressed myself, too. I opened the door and ran towards Jasper, who was sitting on the huge pink bed. That bed had been my choice. I couldn't help it that I had seen too much teen girl movies. I had insisted on getting the huge pink bed, and Jasper had merely shrugged. He'd do anything for me.

"You alright?" he asked me, stroking my hair. I nodded.

"Now I am," I answered him happily. Then I suddenly eyed him suspiciously.

"You're not supposed to use your power on me," I said, "I'm supposed to be stressed now, not smiling, not happy." Jasper pouted, quite perfectly copying the expression I always used.

"Hmpf. And there I thought that you were just happy to see me," he said.

He looked really cute, and I felt the urge to comfort him. I didn't though.

"Happy? To see you? I thought you knew me!" I said, my eyes big with an innocent expression which was also typical for me.

He grinned, pulling me towards him and hugging me. I really felt better now. When I was with Jasper like this, the Volturi seemed like something we could handle easily. Not something to stress about. With Jasper, it felt like we could take the world. As long as we were together. That was what mattered.

"So," Jasper said, "shall we go down? I think they're waiting for us." He stood up, holding his hand up for me to grab it. Now it was my turn to pout. Just to tease hím of course.

"Do we have to?" I asked.

"You can also just stay here, and then we'll discuss the important things. You're just a woman anyway," Jasper answered, and pretended to walk out of the room. I grinned, and then hurried to follow him.

Downstairs, we were the last ones to come in. Esmé was sitting on the couch with her legs folded under her, Emmett was leaning against the wall, Carlisle was standing in the middle of the room, Edward and Bella were sitting next to each other on the floor, and, it was a miracle, Rosalie was sitting on the couch next to Esmé, fumbling with Bella's hair. Bella herself was too stressed to notice Rose trying to comfort her. Though, when I thought of Rose, she might just be comforting herself. Rose loved to do people's hair. It calmed her. Normally, she always did mine, because Emmett refused to let her do his curling hair.

Jasper pulled me to the two big chairs, and we both sat down.

"So," Carlisle began, "we've got some trouble."

"Correction," Bella amended, "I've got some trouble. They're not after you. They want me. Again." She was starting to hyperventilate, and I stepped on Jasper's toe. He understood me, and quickly sent a calming wave towards Bella. Edward squeezed her hand.

"Everyone who's after you, Bella, dear," Esmé said, "is after us."

Bella looked up, bewildered by such an amount of loyalty and love. I nodded.

"Yes, Bells. You áre one of us. Get used to it." I sent her a reassuring smile. Actually, it was weird. We were always reassuring and comforting Bella, although we were all concerned and stressed ourselves.

Carlisle was the first one to get back to the point again. "So what exactly did you see, Alice?"

I explained them about my vision, telling them every detail I could remember. When I finished my story, my entire family had their mouths hung open. This was not what they had expected, that was obvious.

"So what will we do?" Edward asked.

"We protect Bella's house, lead the bad guys into the woods, and fight them there!" Emmett said, showing his huge muscles to show us how much he meant it. Rose sighed deeply.

"What if," Jasper's serene and calm voice said, "in a week, Bella goes to La Push, on the other side of the border. Jane and the others won't follow her scent there, for the wolves' scent is all over the place. And Charlie goes there too."

I saw Bella wince. Edward hadn't really told me what had happened between her and the dog Jacob, but I could guess. A couple of days after the fight with Victoria and her newborns, she had seen him for the last time. I think she finally made the choice not to see him anymore. She chose Edward. Poor Bella. Poor Jacob. She couldn't possibly go back to La Push now, could she?

"But what about us then?" Rosalie asked, "Then Bella is safe, and her father is safe, but we aren't. If they have brought that Alec and Jane, we have no chance to win."

That was something I had already thought about too. I knew that on some points, when there were no other options, we had to make sacrifices. But I couldn't loose anyone of my family. What if Jasper…?

Jasper felt my mood and calmed me, by laying his hand on my shoulder.

"What if we just invite them here?" Esmé asked, "that means we can just talk things over in a peaceful way." Esmé could always only think the good things about people.

"I don't think it'll be that easy," Carlisle answered.

"Wait!" Bella said. I knew what she was going to say. I didn't need the power of foresight for that, so I cut her off before she could finish whatever she was about to say.

"No, Bella," I said, "If you're a vampire when they come, they'll just take you anyway. Or kill you if you refuse. You're no good to us either dead, or as a Volturi."

"Though she would be fun," Emmett grinned, "I wonder if she still falls down every two minutes when she has superpowers."

I kicked Emmett. This wasn't the time for making jokes. Emmett grinned again. Wasn't that guy ever bothered by anything?

"Is fighting all you care about?" I asked him, exaggerating my annoyance. Emmett shrugged and smiled.

"Will the wolves help us?" Edward asked, turning to me. I saw how Bella winced again and I wished we didn't need them this time.

"I can't see, of course. Whenever the wolves are involved, my sight is gone. We can call them, though." I answered. I thought about giving my cell phone to Bella, but then I decided it was better if I made the call. Edward heard what I thought, and he nodded gratefully.

I walked out of the room and dialed the number of Jacob's father's house.

"Jacob?" the husky voice started after the phone had rang only once.

"No, I'm sorry. Is this Billy Black?"

"Yes." Billy's voice was already bleak. Was there something wrong with Jacob?

"It's Alice Cullen speaking. Is your son home?"

"No." He hung up. I stared at the phone for a short moment. Should I call again? I decided not to. I walked back into the living room, and shook my head.

"They're not answering," I said, "No one's home at the moment." Bella was crying. Poor girl.

"Then there're no options left at the moment," Carlisle said. We all looked at him incredulously. He had never said anything like this before! There was always a solution. Bella sobbed silently.

"So you suggest that we just continue as if nothing is going to happen?" Rose said in a small voice.

"I suggest that we all do are best thinking of ideas," Carlisle said, "but that we have to consider that we might have no other solution than to fight."

I stopped breathing. Was this really Carlisle speaking? It was true, it was the only solution. But like Rosalie had said before, we didn't stand a chance against them. And even if we would win… At what cost?

"So we are just going to arrange the marriage. We are going to have fun." Esmé said, "and you'll see, everything will turn out right."

"Oh, and," I said, "Bella, Edward. We have the senior-class reunion in three days, too." Bella snorted.

"We can't possibly go there?" she said. She even sounded hopeful. We all ignored her.

The most important thing was living as we always did… and getting Bella and Charlie to safety. And then save ourselves.

When Jasper and I had gone back to our rooms that evening, Jasper pulled me towards him.

"You worry too much," he muttered somewhere in my hair.

"Duh."

"You shouldn't"

"Jasper. How can I possibly _not_ worry?"

"'cause we're together. And that's what matters."

And he was right. We'd find a solution, as we always did. Right now, our problems felt so small. If we'd really have no other choice, we could always just run. As long as we were together.

I kissed him gently.

"You're still not happy to see me?" he whispered.

"Huh." I answered, "maybe a little. Just a tiny bit."

He chuckled.


	3. Chapter 3 : when even normal is too odd

**Hi! Here is the third chapter. I'm really sorry for having waited so long before posting, but it took me a lot of time. Please review! enjoy reading.**

Chapter 3

The following day we tried to act as normally as we could, for Bella's sake. When I would merely ask her for a pen, she already looked as if she would freak out. I knew why. She was dead scared, and with good reason. We all were scared, of course, but at least we had a hundred years of experience to deal with our fears, Bella hadn't and she had probably had more fear over the past two years than we had had in our entire long lives.

At the same time, I knew that the only reason why Bella was mentally still in one piece, was that a big self-destructive plan had formed inside her head where she could hold on to. Something to live for. I knew about this, because I had seen it happening. I had seen Bella taking a plane to Italy to ask Aro to change her himself.

Even though her plan was incredibly brave, it was plain stupid, and I couldn't let her go through with it. I didn't tell Edward about it, for he already had enough on his mind already. He, for example, had a self-destructive plan too, a plan which could save Bella. I wondered why everyone around me was so eager to die –sure, the love-above-all thing was great, but my plans for saving Bella, or Jasper for that matter, mostly involved me staying alive too.

In stead of talking to Edward, I watched the both of them carefully to make sure they wouldn't do anything stupid. It was good they spent almost every possible minute together, otherwise it would have been pretty hard to follow them both everywhere. I was getting on Edward's nerves, which I thought was incredibly funny.

In the meantime, while being busy trying to be the responsible one for once, I was trying to think of some master plan to save us all. Jasper and I were having some sort of contest on who was coming up with one first. Right now, it looked like he, with his strategic mind, would win. That stung.

On the day of the senior-class reunion, I decided to talk to Bella. I wanted to tell her that I disagreed with her plan of killing herself. Because surely, if Bella went on her own to Italy, Felix wouldn't let her stay alive -she smelled far to good.

I walked into Bella's room when she was getting dressed for tonight's party. These moments of getting dressed and changing were the rare moments where Edward left her side for a couple of minutes to give her some privacy.

"Hi," I said.

"Oh, hi Alice," her voice was flat and toneless with the constant worry. She looked up briefly to look at me, and immediately I had to hide a gasp. She really looked like a wrack, it was almost hard to recognize her. She had dark shades under her eyes, her hair had lost it's gloss and the corners of her mouth were pointed down in an unintended grimace.

"What are you going to wear?" I asked, trying to start the conversation friendly and innocent.

"Ugh," she groaned.

"What?" I asked, "you have plenty of clothes since our shop-till-you-drop weekend last month!"

"I'm not going."

"Excuse me?" I tried to stay polite.

"You have to agree with me, Alice! After al that has happened this week, I can't possibly go to that stupid reunion and listen to those persons' petty problems! I'm getting married for Heaven's sa-"

"Hush," I interrupted her, "you áre coming, whether you like it or not. Period. End of story." I didn't care if I would have to force her. I would use violence, if needed. Bella needed some distraction.

I grabbed a blue skirt and a white T-shirt out of her closet, and laid them in her hands. When she didn't move, I sighed and helped her putting them on, then I did her hair and put just a bit of make-up on her face.

"There," I said contently, "you looked absolutely horrible when I arrived here, but I managed to make you look at least agreeable."

"Gee, thanks for that," Bella answered sarcastically.

"You could be a bit more grateful. I just saved you bloody ass. Think of what Mike Newton would do if he'd see you in the state I just found you in. He wouldn't leave your side anymore, and he would constantly ask you thinks like 'are you alright?' and 'can I get you something?'"

It worked; Bella smiled.

"Hm, you're right," she said, "if you put it that way… Thanks."

"Any time," I answered, and bowed. She laughed, and it sounded good. She looked healthier already. Besides, I needed her in a good mood when I'd ask her about her plan.

"Alice?" she said, suddenly sounding utterly innocent.

"Hm?"

"You really won't let me sit this reunion-thingy out, right?"

"Not a chance," I agreed, "and now go downstairs, where my beautiful brother is waiting for you. And you won't let him go alone, right?" I used my pouting face. It worked.

"Bugger," she sighed, "you really know how to make me feel guilty, don't you? Let's get it over with then." She headed downstairs, where I knew Edward was waiting patiently for me to finish the conversation. Even though I'd been very careful with my thoughts around him, he still knew there was something about Bella I knew and that I needed to talk to her about that.

"Bells?" I started carefully.

"What is it, Alice?"

"Your plan. No way."

"What?" Bella said, trying hard, though too late, to compose her guilty face.

"You know what I mean. Acting as the third wife in the clearing last year was stupid, but this new plan of yours is just insane."

"Alice, I-"

"Don't you 'Alice' me. I just want you to keep in mind that I will be watching you, and that there's no way that I'm going to let you go to Italy."

Bella was about to retort, when I felt Edward's cold hand on my shoulder and heard his soft voice say soothingly: "Thanks, Alice, I'll take it from here," he guided Bella to the door, "Do you need a ride, Alice?"

His voice was strained, and his face was smooth, but I could see from his eyes that he had heard every word of what I had said. He wanted to talk to Bella, alone.

"No, thank you, I'll wait for Jasper, it's his turn to watch Charlie. Just go along, I'll see you there." They left, but before the door closed, I caught an angry glance from Bella. I stuck out my tongue at her.

When I heard Jasper in the garden, I left Bella's room through the window ad ran towards him.

"Hey little one," he said, "you alright?"

"Of course I am," I answered and kissed him, "I just stopped Bella from killing herself."

"What else is new?" He grinned.

I smiled and then prepared to leave.

"Have fun," he said, "and don't you worry with that little head of yours."

"You know me," I answered reassuringly and then I darted into the woods, headed to Forks High School. Behind me, Jasper shouted: "Have you got a plan already?"

"Nope," I shouted back.

"Seems like I'm going to win, then." He sounded way too smug. I cursed. I wás going to loose our bet.

The party had already started when I arrived at school. It was held in the biggest classroom, the one where Trig was given. All the tables were gone, only the teacher's desk was still there, filled with food and drinks. In a corner, I saw Bella talking to Mike and Ang.

I heard Mike ask about the wedding, and he looked quite aggressive. Bella looked miserable and defensive. I decided to interfere.

"Hey Ang, Mike," I said, "Bells, where's my brother?"

"Getting us a drink," Bella answered.

"Hi Alice, how are you?" Angela asked.

"So, when's the marriage?" Mike continued gruffly.

"I'm great, Ang, thanks. You?" I said.

"We don't know yet, Mike," Bella said through gritted teeth.

"Great! Ben and I are going to France this summer."

"Don't you think you're just a bit young for this, Bella?"

"France? How nice! I hope you two will have fun!"

"Mike. That. Is. None. Of. Your. Business."

Angela's and my attempt to make the conversation nice and friendly had failed. Bella and Mike were nearly shouting at each other, Angela decided to try one last time.

"Look. What did Jess do with her hair?"

This caught Mike's and Bella's attention, and they both looked, though irritated, into Jessica Stanley's direction. Jess had painted her hair red. Not just a normal shade of red, but bright red. It was nearly the same color as Victoria's, only Victoria looked good, and Jess didn't anymore.

"She's a redhead," Mike said with obvious disgust in his voice.

"Technically," I amended, "she's still blonde, it's just painted." Mike rolled his eyes.

"A red blonde it is, then," Angela smiled.

"Or a blond redhead," Edward suggested, who turned up behind Bella, with three drinks in his hand.

Then, at the moment I wanted to retort with something funny, I felt the familiar feeling of a vision coming up. A strong one. I saw Edward casting a concernede glance in my direction, then he immediately played for stand-up comedian to get all the attention off me. While everyone started to laugh, I sank into my vision. And I was not glad with what I saw.

_It was just Alec and Jane. They were standing on the moonlit lane in front of our house. Jane was smiling. She looked like a child who'd just gotten a complement on a drawing she had made._

_"They're just with four people inside. The fifth is coming home," she said. Her voice sounded as if she was telling Alec that the sun was shining._

_"Great!" Alec answered with the same innocent childish smile on his face._

_"So the plan's easy. We go inside. They of course already know that we're here. We only want the useful ones with us. That means the tall one, Jasper. He's on his way home, he'll be here soon. I can already hear him approaching."_

_Alec nodded._

_"Keep them busy, in the meantime, I'll order the un-useful ones to stay away. Felix and the others can finish them later." Alec said, and he smiled sweetly._

_Then the vision stopped and there only were some short flashes. Rose, Carlisle, Esmé and Emmett sitting on the couch with a frustrated expression on their faces, Jane looking down on Jasper with a sweet smile, and then Jasper lying on the ground of the living room, cringing, twisting, with an expression of pure agony on his face, then Felix, Demetri and the others coming in, ready to finish it..._

"No!" I gasped as the vision stopped. There was a lot of noise in the room, so luckily nobody had heard me. I tried as hard as I could to compose my face, but it didn't work, since I had a hard time keeping myself from jumping through the window and running home. I looked around in search for Edward, but I couldn't find him. Did he leave Bella and me here alone? Had he run home? The others, Mike and Ang and some others, were still laughing about the jokes he'd told, so he couldn't have been gone for long.

"Where's Edward?" I asked, and for the first time in my long life, my voice sounded hoarse.

"He went to the toilet, only two minutes ago," Angela answered me, eyeing me strangely, "Alice, are you alright?"

No! Edward had seen half of my vision and had then gone home to warn our family. What he didn't see though, was that this vision was of a very near future. One that might be the present right now.

And Edward was running right into their trap.

"No, I'm not, excuse me, I've got to go," I said, and without another look I turned around and left the classroom. I heard Bella following behind me. She shouldn't. It was too dangerous. My entire family was in danger. We would fight an we would loose. Bella should not be around.

I walked out of the school, and Bella was still behind me.

"Alice, what's wrong?" she asked me. It was too late to lie.

"Something bad. Stay here. It might be dangerous."

"I'm coming with you"

"No way!" I started to run, but she jumped on my back before I had time to gain some speed. This was the first time ever that Bella had been so quick. Stress made her reflexes better.

"I'm coming with you," she whispered again. It was weird, she didn't sound stressed or scared anymore, only determined.

"Fine," I hissed, "hold on," I started to run. I was slower with some one on my back and it felt like every second an hour was passing. Like every moment I was getting closer, but every extra moment was one too much.

I explained to Bella what I had seen, and at the same moment tried to ignore the voices in the back of my head, the visions of what was happening at my house at the moment...

"But why didn't Emmett and the others fight?" Bella interrupted my thoughts, "I mean, Jane and Alec are only with the two of them. Jane can only torture one person at the time..."

"I've found out what Alec's talent is," I answered.

"And?"

"He can order people to do things. And they have no choice but to obey. He ordered Esmé, Carlisle, Rose and Emmett to sit still and so they did. They can't get of the couch until Alec allows them to."

"Darn..." Bella hissed.

"It is like the Alpha in the werewolf pack. Sam's authority works exactly the same as Alec's talent."

"Only Sam doesn't use it to take some one's free will," Bella answered, even in this stressful situation defending her wolf friends.

We reached the house, and without pausing, I burst into the living room. I smelled Jane and Alec, so I was right that my vision was happening at the moment I'd seen it.

I didn't hear Alec and Jane, which meant that they were already gone. We were too late.

I looked around the living room, and if it wasn't for the expression on my family's faces, one could easily think that they were spending a nice evening together. Their bodies looked relaxed, seated in various comfortable poses. But their expressions weren't right. Rosalie looked scared, something that I'd rarely seen before, Emmett looked as if he would like to kill some one, Esmé looked as if she would cry if she was able to do that, and Carlisle's expression was one of agony. There were two persons missing. Where were Edward and Jasper?

"Alice! Bella!" Rosalie cried out, "You're too late! Edward and Jasper are gone!"

I cursed. "whereto?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

"Volterra," Esmé answered silently, "I swear, we wanted to fight, and to help them, but that small boy told us to sit down and don't move, and now-"

"I know," I quickly said, "But why Jasper and Edward?"

"If you are separated, you will follow and safe them," Carlisle said, "and you will join them if they ask you."

"What?" Bella said.

"Bella, if they let you choose between a dead Edward or joining the Volturi forever, what would you choose?"

"Oh!" she gasped.

"And they want you, because you are the ones with the talents they need," Esmé added.

I cursed again.

"What should we do?" Rosalie asked.

"You can't do anything," I answered, "until Alec releases you. I however, have to go to Italy."

They were all silent for a moment, before everyone started to shout at the same time. Esmé was saying things about my safety, Carlisle was telling us that he was sure Jasper wouldn't be hurt, Rosalie was letting out a stream of profanities, and Emmett was angry because he wanted to fight some one, preferably Felix.

"No…" Bella said, sounding upset and indignant. Everyone was silent again and they were now looking at Bella and me.

"You can't," Bella continued, "you can't leave me here. I have to go too."

"You're human, Bella," I told her. No way was she going to get herself in danger again, in exactly the same way as last Spring break.

"You're both not going at all!" Esmé said, and it sounded nearly as a plead.

"Damn right I'm human!" Bella screamed, ignoring Esmé, "but Edward is on a plane to Italy right now, and he's in danger. You can't expect me to sit back and do nothing!"

I sighed. "You're right, Bella. But I can't take you with me either. It's going to be dangerous. You'll probably end up as dinner."

"Then so be it." There was so much decision in those four words, that I couldn't doubt her determination. She'd do anything for Edward. And suddenly I realized that Bella was the bravest person I knew. She went to Volterra last year, even though she knew she probably wouldn't get back alive, and she did that for a person of whom she was sure he didn't love her anymore. Now she was determined to go again, but this time even without any hope, only because she was determined to get Edward back – but Aro was even more determined to get the four of us together. And if Aro wanted something, he would definitely get it. Bella knew this. Yes, indeed she was the bravest person alive.

I nodded. "We have to go at once."

"What?" my family shouted together, but Bella hugged me.

"Thank you, Alice!" she whispered in my ear.

"I do this only because I understand what you're feeling." For I was feeling the exact same at the same time. Jasper was caught. Jasper was in danger. He could be hurt and tortured by Jane right now. And for the rest of time. Jasper was strong and brave, and he wouldn't give in really quickly, but eventually, he'd break. I couldn't let that happen. I had to go there and save him, or I'd break myself. A life without Jasper was no life at all.

I had made my decision. I turned to my family.

"What exactly did Alec order you?"

"To sit on the couch until we were ready to fight," Emmett answered grudgingly, "whatever that may mean. I'm ready to fight and I'm still sitting still on a couch." He groaned.

I sighed relieved. "That's good."

"Good?" Carlisle asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Good, yes," I said, "Felix and the others are coming here to fight you, and I was afraid that you'd still be unable to move then. But apparently, you'll get a fair fight."

"Good, indeed!" Emmett approved.

"Will you fight with us?" Rosalie asked silently. I didn't know. I was torn between my love for my family and my love for Jasper.

"We're all damned," Carlisle said, "If they come with all fourteen of their warriors, we won't be able to win the fight. Not with you, not without you."

Carlisle was right. It didn't matter. I had to choose, now.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. I walked over to the couch, and kissed the top of Carlisle's head, and then Esmé's.

"For what, Alice?" Rose asked suspiciously.

I had no other choice. I couldn't leave them if they'd ask me to stay now. I had to go without giving them the chance to do that.

"For this," I answered.

I looked at all of them, knowing that it would be the last time. Then I picked up Bella and ran out of the house.

Towards my love. Towards eternal damnation.


	4. Chapter 4 : when time alone isn't enough

Chapter four

Chapter four.

It was six in the morning when our plane finally started to land. I saw the water underneath me coming closer, and I felt that the air became lighter.

Next to me, Bella had finally fallen asleep. She looked like a wrack, even more than last night before the reunion. Had really only one night passed? It felt like it was something from a long time ago. A happier time. I knew I sounded melodramatic now, but it was true that I had thought about loosing Jasper so much over the past ten hours, that it felt like I had had to loose him over and over again.

I thought about last night. After we left the house, Bella and I immediately drove to the airport. Bella called Charlie to say that she was going somewhere and that she wouldn't be back soon. That was all she said, and I wondered how many times more Charlie would be able to handle this kind of information. If everything went as I thought it would, this would be the last time for him. Bella would not be able to make any phone call again. Ever.

We had to wait an hour for our plane, and because we had been so late with booking, we had the slowest plane too. My patience was running out, and I really had to keep myself from kicking the friendly steward. Bella however, remained silent all the way. I wondered what had gotten into her. Normally, she would be even more impatient than I was, for she was human. But her patience was so great, that it started to worry me.

When our plane left the safe earth, Bella finally started to talk. Her voice sounded fragile, as a cold morning breeze.

"Alice? What's going to happen to us?"

"I'm trying hard not to see that," I answered, "I'm focusing on Jasper and Edward right now."

Bella nodded. She didn't want to know what would happen to us either, or her courage might disappear.

"Any news?" she asked.

"Same as before," I answered, "they are still going to let them live."

"And at home…?"

"I'm trying hard not to see that either. I have to focus on where we are going now." That was not entirely sure. It just hurt too much to think of my family, at home, fighting themselves to death. I really wanted to see what the fight would lead to, but I didn't want to know it either. It was really frustrating.

"Alice?" Bella asked me again.

"Hm?"

"Are we going to die?" Her voice didn't sound scared, she just sounded like she was asking for the answer to a difficult math problem.

"We always have a choice," I answered. _Join or die. Such lovely choices we will have._

"I'm not going to let myself become immortal just to become one of them, Alice," Bella had answered.

"I don't think _you_ will have much of a choice, Bella. You are a mere human."

"Oh, thanks. That's making me feel much better," Bella answered, the crease between her eyebrows more visible than ever. She was worrying more than she was showing. Of course she was.

Right now, her frown was still visible, even now she was sleeping. Every now and then, she muttered things like: "not Edward," or, "I love you," or "I won't do it," etc.

The plane hit the ground, and I shook Bella gently. We had to get out of the plane as soon as we could.

Bella opened her eyes, and for a moment she looked totally bewildered. "Edward?" she asked, but then her eyes adjusted to the light and she saw me, the plane around her and all the passengers who were looking at her.

"Oh, it's you, Alice," she said disappointed, "Right." She sighed. "Let's get this over with."

"I'm starting to wonder if this will be over once," I muttered under my breath, too silent for human ears to hear.

On the airport, I stole a black Ferrari. The sun wasn't shining, which was good, for the car didn't have blinded windows. We got in the car, and I raced towards Volterra with nearly two hundred miles an hour. Bella didn't even seem to notice our speed, something which, once again, showed me how stressed she actually was.

At nine o'clock, we reached the city walls of Volterra. Now that there wasn't a party of any sort and it wasn't high season, the city was remarkably calm. I reached the gate, and saw that it was the same man as the last time who was holding back the cars. Again, I was glad that the sun wasn't shining, something which was rather uncommon in this part of Europe.

I rolled down the window at the moment the man wanted to tell us we couldn't enter the city with a car, and he stopped right in the middle of his first word, his mouth hanging open.

"Good day," he stuttered, "Nice to see you – again." He hadn't forgotten me. I handed him a hundred-dollar bill and gave him a warm smile.

"Welcome to Volterra, miss," he said, smiling back, completely dazed. He stood aside and let us pass.

I sniffed the warm air and noticed that there weren't as much vampires in the city this time as before. There were some older scents, but nothing recent. Everyone must be at the castle- or in Forks, fighting my family.

I forced myself not to think of it, and instead focused on driving through the narrow streets of Volterra, right towards the castle in the centre of the city. We reached an almost empty parking-lot and parked the car. I got out of the car, and then helped Bella standing up (Humans had trouble with moving after having sat still for a long time).

We walked to the main square, and I realized that if I'd come here for a more friendly visit, I would have loved to visit the shops of famous clothing designers I saw there.

On the other side of the square, there was the famous clock tower, the tower beneath which everything had happened last year. I hoped that our story would have a happy ending again this time.

We passed the big fountain, where a happy family was throwing coins into it, and I couldn't help thinking of my own happy family that wouldn't be so happy anymore right now.

We didn't go to the castle underground this time but we decided to use the main entrance.

We followed a broad street that led from the big square towards the wooden doors of the Volturi's castle. It was gigantic. I knew it would be big after I'd seen it from images and from the inside, but I'd never imagined it being so... huge.

Actually, it wasn't a castle but more a citadel. It had several large towers and so many windows... I suddenly realized how so many dangerous vampires could live here without being noticed.

Next to me, Bella shuddered, the first emotion I saw from her since we had left home. I didn't want to enter the castle either but I knew we didn't have a choice. Nonetheless, my muscles were screaming at me and commanding me to turn around and run. It was a good thing I had so much experience with hiding my emotions, or fear would have been clear on my face. Bella would freak out. For some stupid reason, she always found courage in our self control.

I knocked the door with one of the two massive golden door knockers and waited for the doors to open. Two tourists who were passing us eyed us suspiciously. I figured it would look strange for two ordinary people to knock the door of a castle. I wondered what they would do of they knew that the three saints to whom this city was dedicated were still inside, alive and kicking. Figuratively speaking of course, I didn't think that Aro would ever move even his toe when his guard was around.

The door opened just a little bit and a sweet face peeped around it. Her eyes were bright crimson, which meant she had eaten recently. I wasn't glad for the humans they had eaten of course, but I was glad for us. If they weren't hungry, they were a bit more in control of themselves, and Bella would live a little longer.

"Can I help you?" the little vampire looked at us oddly. I suppose they weren't used to visitors, especially not with humans. The girl suddenly smelled Bella looked at her hungrily, but she stayed in control of herself. She must be older than I had thought.

"My name is Alice Cullen and-"

"Oh!" the girl interrupted me. She looked quite young, I suddenly noticed, as if she hadn't reached the age of fourteen yet when they'd transformed her, "they are expecting you!"

She opened the door a little further to let us in. I pulled Bella to my side, and saw the two tourists behind me shooting curious glances inside. They were hoping they could see the castle from the inside too. Yet an other example of 'be careful what you wish for'.

The door closed behind me, leaving us standing in the near-darkness. Bella shuddered again but otherwise showed no emotion anymore.

I knew for sure that I was in Edward's mind-hearing range.

Edward! It's me! I screamed in my head, Tell Jazz I'm okay. Bella is fine too, she's here with me, but don't panic! Don't do anything stupid. We'll be fine.

At that exact moment, I saw the future changing. Suddenly, there wás a future again. It wasn't clear enough to see it well yet, but at least I could make out that we were going to live for a little while longer. Edward must've heard me.

"Welcome to Volterra!" the vampire girl beside me said with a warm smile. I noticed that she was trying hard to ignore Bella's appetizing scent. That was good. I wouldn't make a good first impression by fighting the Volturi's doorkeeper.

"Thank you," I answered, trying to sound friendly.

"My name is Pubble," she said and giggled, "I know it's a weird name. It's a nickname actually, but everyone calls me this, Pubble or Pub. My true name is Féline."

"Nice to meet you," I answered merely. I didn't like this Féline. She looked like a newborn and although she was pretty good in control of herself and she looked so cute and innocent, I didn't trust her. She was too Jane-y. Surely that could also just be the prejudices against Volturi's followers talking.

We followed Pub or Pubble or whatever she liked to be called through a beautiful and large hall that was lit by hundreds of candles and chandeliers. The floors and walls were made of marble, and the ceilings were decorated with something that looked like Michelangelo's style. It could be painted by him, of course, Aro would want his castle to be decorated only with the best and the most famous. It was only too obvious that he lived here.

Vampires were pacing up and down the hall. Guarding or patrolling, I supposed. As if anyone would try to break in here. Like they would dare.

Bella squeezed my hand as if she was trying to crush it. Even her weak human instincts must have sensed the death around us. Just because she was a vampire didn't mean that she couldn't detect danger. Death was all around. It hung from the chandeliers, it crept against the walls...

This corroborated with my earlier conclusion that they had fed recently.

"I just love your powers, Alice!" Pub said to me and I wondered if she was really this naive to not notice that I didn't come her for a social visit.

"Right," I chuckled without humor, "There's nothing better than knowing what's going to happen to you."

Bella cringed into my side at my words, and I realized that my words had answered her unspoken questions about our future. And probably, more even, Edward's.

"Anyway," Pub continued, still seemingly oblivious to my dislike of everything around me, "tonight you'll be the guests of honor!"

"It's going to be such a great evening," I snorted.

"It will be a night to remember," Pub agreed, full of dark anticipation, and then I realized she wasn't naive. It had all been just a mask.

She opened the big, way too expensive doors that led to the big room where we had been last time too. We entered it from the other side this time, and I could see the places where we had stood last time, when we had gotten away safely. I wished this time would have the same outcome.

Just like last time, the room was crowded with vampires. So many, at least fifty of them. Once again my instincts told me to run but I resisted. I could see that we would at least live through this evening. I couldn't see any further, for the ancients were still indecisive about what to do with us. I knew Aro wanted me badly, but he wanted Bella even more because she was so special.

In the middle of the room, Aro was sitting, surrounded by five of his guards. His face turned towards us when he heard us coiming in and he smiled genuinly. I had never wanted to hit break someone's neck so badly as I wanted to do with Aro now.

"Young Alice! Beautiful Bella! What a delight to have you back!"

"The pleasure is all ours," I answered with a frown, "though I'd prefer that your servants wouldn't kill or capture my family next time."

I expected him to be mad for accusing him, but instead everyone -except for Marcus, who was, once again, sulking in a corner- laughed.

"I can see that you are very cheerful today, Alice. It amuses me," Aro complimented me. I gritted my teeth.

"I was cheerful last time. I don't come in peace this time."

"I can see that," Aro said, still dangerously friendly, as always when he was talking to me, "Then what do you suggest?"

"I suggest you set free Jasper and Edward."

"As much as I want to see you happy and I hate to hurt you, little Alice, I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why not?" I asked, but I already knew his answer.

"leverage, Alice. If they are gone, you won't have a reason to stay here either. Besides, I think you like it better here with the four of you instead of only you. I'm doing this so you can be together."

"Wow, such a saint you are," I answered sarcastically and Aro laughed again.

"Sometimes people have to be ruthless to get what they want, Alice."

"You could have spared my family."

"They were acting against the law."

"What?" Yes, I could definitely kill him now. The grieve I felt for my family was almost too much to bear. The loss was too great. My family, my life, killed for nothing.

"They were troublemakers. They were working against us and so they had to be fought."

Suddenly, Bella straightened up.

"You didn't have the right," she whispered, "they were innocent."

"We have every right, little girl," Caius said, appearing next to Aro with his own number of guards at his side, "we own every right. That's why we are in command."

I wondered why they were suddenly dropping the facade of being the keepers of peace. They never wanted people to know how bad they actually were because they were afraid to loose the people's faith and thus their power. They must think that we would never be able to spread the news... Were they planning to keep us, or to kill us?

"Now, now," Aro soothed with a serene smile, "let's be friendly."

"Let's not," I suggested.

"let's discuss this later," Caius said, "the new ones will not go anywhere." I knew I could not disobey. It was too dangerous, and they knew it.

Pub reappeared behind us.

"Master," she said to Aro, "Alec and Jane and the others will be home in ten minutes." Bella and I winced together. They coming back meant that the fight at home was over. The last bit of hope disappeared. I still didn't dare trying to see my family. I didn't know if I could deal with the loss.

"Excellent!" Aro answered and clapped his hands happily, "we will all be home and everything will be cozy and happy again."

"Sure," Bella couldn't help saying, "we'll have such a good time!"

Aro laughed again, and I wondered when he was going to drop this being friendly part and show us how cruel he could actually be. I wondered how long he would wait before forcing someone to change Bella. He wanted to see her power and own it.

Ten minutes later, when Bella's hair was all fixed and smoothed because I had stroked it so many times to give her some comfort, the doors finally opened. In the opening, Jane, Alec, Demetri, Felix and some others I didn't know, were standing. It was weird, but somehow they looked… beaten.

"Welcome back, my dear ones," Aro said, and pecked Jane on the cheek, "everything settled?"

Felix looked at the ground, as if he was embarrassed, or scared. This pose did not fit his personality.

"Not everything went according to plan, master," he said, glaring fiercely at me. I wondered what I'd done wrong.

"What do you mean?" Aro's voice was dangerously velvet.

"They got help, master, and we didn't win."

A warm feeling spread through my body after hearing those few easy words. They hád won. My family was still living. I smiled widely, and I heard Bella sighing deliberated. But who must have helped them? There was only one possibility.

"There were wolves, who fought with them," Felix continued, "they got one of us."

I had to keep myself from jumping up and down, something I always did when being happy.

"Martha," Aro said, nodding. His voice was thick with… not with grieve, but with annoyance. He had lost one of his precious guards. He was not sad, just irritated that he had lost something of so much value.

I realized that I liked seeing Aro irritated. I thought I was liking everything at that moment, it was just the high of knowing my family was safe. I was so glad with the wolves, I promised myself never to say or think anything bad about them. I knew I would break my promise within two days. ( I already foresaw it)

I wondered how the pack had found out about the vampires in Forks attacking us and then why they would help us… They hated us, right? On the other hand, we did have some sort of truce after last spring. Perhaps Seth had made this happen. Or maybe Jasper or Edward had gotten the chance to contact them. This last thought cheered me up.

"Hm," Alec said, interrupting my thoughts, "what are _they_ still doing here?" He nodded towards Bella and me.

"You're right," Caius said, "they shouldn't have heard all of this. Let's get them to their, uhm, room. Demetri, Felix, take them there."

Felix moved swiftly to our side, his previous scared mood already shifted. He was grinning cockily at Bella (again) and grabbed her arm before I could move her away from him. If he dared to hurt her… I snarled at him, but he merely grinned and winked. Bella shivered.

Demetri walked to my side, and guided me through the doors at the other side of the ballroom. I remembered why we were here again. My happy mood faded away, and I suddenly realized that even if the situation at home was okay for just a while, we still were in big, big trouble.

6


	5. Chapter 5 : when emotions take over

**Hey everyone! Because of personal reasons, I haven't been able to write for a very very long time. Now, however, I'm totally back in the game with new stories and plots. Here comes chapter five, and I hope that you will all love it. Please review, for it makes me more eager to continue the story...**

**xxx Eline**

Chapter five

They led us into a small corridor with on both sides many doors and Felix opened one on the right. He smiled when he opened it end waited until we walked through.

"Ladies first," he grinned and winked again, this time at me. I pushed Bella through the door first, so I could watch her. I didn't trust Felix at all.

Felix laughed again lightly about my mistrust and followed us in, together with Demetri. I decided that he was friendlier and easier to converse with than Felix and so I decided to ask him if I wanted a serious answer.

"Demetri?"

"Alice," he said in response.

"Jasper and Edward-"

"Are absolutely fine, I can assure you," Demetri interrupted me, and indeed he did reassure me, for the truth in his words was unmistakable.

"Fine as in 'alive' or as in 'not harmed'?" I asked him, happy to have a normal conversation.

Demetri didn't answer this time but merely smiled to disguise the awkwardness of the answer he did not give. This made me feel less good and I wondered what on earth they were doing to Jasper. I got a sudden anxious feeling and I was sure that had I still been human, I would have fainted. Jasper was the reason for my existence, and if he was hurt… All the pain he felt, I felt it thousand times worse just by knowing he was in pain. I was so worried that, for one moment, I didn't think of the situation we were in, the danger, the possibility of death. All that mattered right now was Jasper, and his well-being.

I suddenly felt a reassuring hand on my shoulder and I wondered why on earth Demetri would want to comfort me. Why would he be friendly to us if he had just tried to kill my family and rob me of my future? Nonetheless, the gesture was a friendly one, and that gave me even more reason to be unkind.

"Get your hands of me," I warned him darkly and narrowed my eyes and tensed my body. The hand disappeared from my shoulder and I heard Demetri shrugging softly behind me and muttering silently, "you're right."

In that moment, I realized that I had left Bella alone with Felix for more then fifteen seconds, and I anxiously looked up. If I couldn't do anything for Jasper right now, then at least I could try to make Edward happy: by keeping Bella safe. Besides, it gave me something to do.

Felix was trying to be a gentleman, or at least mockingly pretending to, probably to make Bella feel awkward, and he offered to take her coat. Bella just looked at him with big, scared eyes, while holding on to her coat as if it was a life jacket. I felt sorry for her, she must feel so useless and vulnerable here. I, myself, already felt vulnerable, and she wasn't even one of us. One snap of Felix's eager fingers, and Bella would be dead. I knew how appealing Bella smelled to Felix (almost as appealing as to Edward!) and I wasn't happy at all that Felix was one of the two persons to guard us.

I turned to Felix and said with as much hate in my voice as I could: "Get away from Bella, now, before I rip off your head." I knew it sounded stupid out of the mouth of a little vampire like me, especially since I was saying it in a room with two very large vampires against me. But somehow Felix obeyed and stepped back.

"As you wish, milady," he said, again as mockingly as he could. He bowed deeply and turned towards the door to close it. After having done that, he turned again and placed himself carefully in front of it, casually leaning against the dark wood. There was no way of getting out.

I sighed and then walked over to Bella and put an arm around her shoulders. She felt so fragile under my cold stone touch, that I was afraid that she would break. I used my most angry look on Demetri and Felix and I saw that it did affect them. Demetri cringed slightly and Felix whistled through his teeth. Ha, so dare. I was small, but I could be dangerous too.

Felix started to laugh and rolled his muscles.

"Alice, you are not half as scary as you think you are," he laughed.

"Indeed!" Demetri added, "you are twice as scary." He laughed too. His eyes flashed to me for a brief second and I narrowed mine as his bore into them. The look on his face was one I did not immediately understand, but then I got a vision which explained everything.

_I was sitting in the exact same room as I was now. Bella had gone and Felix had too.__ Only Demetri was still there._

"_Hey, Alice?" he said, trying hard to keep his tone light._

"_What is it, Demetri?" I asked, and I had no idea why I was sounding so friendly._

"_I… I have feelings for you."_

The vision stopped and I briefly looked at Demetri. Ah. That explained everything.

The whole vision hadn't taken more than one second, so he couldn't have noticed my brief vision- but he might have noticed my sudden mood-shift. I wasn't angry anymore. At least, not with Demetri. This even made everything easier. We were safer if Demetri didn't want us dead. I smiled a tiny smile, but I was still lost in thought and so I didn't notice that I was smiling right into Felix' face. Felix smiled his cocky smile at me and said: "I knew you'd fall for me, Alice, I just didn't expect it to happen so soon. But then again, I _am_ of course very handsome _and_ sexy." He winked at me. I scowled at him in response.

"Don't be silly," I answered, "I would never smile at you like that. Perhaps if you were torn to pieces and burning down at my feet…"

"Alice, will there ever be a kind word coming from your mouth?"

"Yes of course!" I answered, "when I'm talking to people who don't want to kill us!"

"I never said I wanted to kill Bella," Felix said and grinned.

"You stay away from her," I warned, squeezing Bella's hand.

"I will stay away from her for as long as I'm not allowed to do anything more… But Aro will soon allow me. Besides, how can you be sure that_ she_ won't come to _me?"_His voice was full of dark anticipation and I felt nauseous without knowing exactly why. It wasn't as if Bella would just walk over to their side. Right? Another vision asked my attention.

_I was standing in a big hall, and in front of me, Bella was standing. Her eyes were scared as she looked at me and she cringed when a snarl rise from my throat. I lunged forward, headed for her neck…_

"No!" I screamed and collapsed onto the ground. I stared at my own hands in horror and couldn't believe what I just saw. This couldn't be true. I would never want to… to kill Bella.

Bella kneeled down beside me and stroke my hair. It was the way I always comforted her when she felt bad or sad. The gesture made me feel awkward. For so many years, I had learnt self-control and discipline, and now I looked so vulnerable by screaming and falling to the ground. I should have known better.

"It's okay, honey, it's going to be okay," Bella whispered in my ear, "what did you see? Was it bad?"

I had to regain my self-control and that's why I looked at her with a reassuring smile.

"Sure, Bells, I'm fine," my voice sounded a bit strange, with a little edge of hysteria, but otherwise, my stress wasn't noticeable, "I was just startled, that's all. Nothing to worry about." I jumped lithely to my feet and helped Bella standing up. This was the way it was supposed to be. I was supposed to comfort Bella, not the other way around. I was the strong one here, she was just the young human. I should not be affected by my emotions like this.

I looked up and met Demetri's gaze. I couldn't help wondering when he would fall in love with me… But I had other, more important things to worry about. For example, how I was going to keep myself from killing Bella. Right now, that didn't seem so hard, I just wanted to protect her, but according to my vision, that opinion would soon change. I had to be careful.

I looked at Bella and her brown eyes looked at me with curiosity… and fear. I shook my head at her, because I knew what question she would have asked if we had been alone. Jasper and Edward were fine.

My little gesture made her frown. I just saw her thinking: _if it's not them… Then what did Alice see?_

"You can share everything with us, if you please," Felix asked from behind me, his voice slightly taunting. Ha. Very funny. He was mocking me. He was making fun of my lack of self-control. I would be the weak female to him forever.

"Well, as a matter of fact, we don't please," I answered him coldly, "this is something between Bella and me. And if you'd excuse us, Bella has to get some sleep."

"Of course, milady," Felix said and his voice was even more taunting than before, "Isabella, I wish you a very good night."

Bella narrowed her eyes but otherwise ignored him. I didn't know if she did this because she was afraid or because she was annoyed, but either way, I was proud of her.

I walked Bella to the corner of the room, and sat down, pulling her half onto my lap and making her feel comfortable.

"Get some rest, honey, and don't mind those asses watching us." I whispered in Bella's ear, but I already knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep, because of various reasons. First of all, she missed Edward like crazy. Second of all, she was stressed and scared. Third of all, there were two highly dangerous vampires watching her at the moment.

Demetri had turned around as a real gentleman was supposed to do (I started to like him more and more!) and Felix kept watching Bella closely (I started to dislike him even more. He seemed to have set his mind completely on Bella.) Bella scowled for a moment but then seemed to decide that it was of no use. Completely against what I had expected, she closed her eyes and very quickly her breathing became even. She was really sleeping!

I looked up and saw that Felix was looking at his fingers out of boredom, and Demetri had sat himself on the ground and was reading a book. I closed my eyes for a moment and checked the future. It was a safe one just for tonight, so I sighed and decided to let it all rest for a moment.

The days passed slowly and in a dull rhythm that made thinking virtually impossible. Bells slept a great part of the day or passed it with reading books that Felix got her, because we weren't able to talk a lot because of all the eavesdroppers. I passed a great part of the day by conversing with Demetri. It was really odd, but because I knew that one day he would fall in love with me, I was able to be very kind to him, and to even like him. He was someone I could easily talk to, and that made every day a little bit more bearable.

Only a little bit, though, because the days were so hard to pass because I missed Jazz like crazy. There wasn't one moment that passed without me thinking of Jasper or Bella about Edward.

New visions about me killing Bella stayed away and I was beginning to believe that I had seen it wrongly… That the vision had been some sort of hallucination caused by too much stress. I started to relax a little bit, which was not smart.

"Alice!" a high-pitched voice sounded from the door opening, and when I looked up, I saw Pub walking in. "Bella! It's so nice to finally be able to visit you two. I have been patrolling the city for the entire week and I wanted to visit you earlier, but Aro didn't allow me. Says I don't have enough self-control with the human close," _hm, _I thought, _at least Aro decided something smart for once _, "So, how are you holding up? Having fun here? Isn't this place great?" she gestured wildly around the room, as if the cold unfurnished room was something beautiful.

"Sure," Bella answered, "it's great. So many facilities to pass the time… I would just like to stay here longer." I stared at Bella in surprise. It was the first thing, beside the silent yesses and knows that she had said to anyone but me in four days. Felix had done his best to start a conversation with her, but after three days of getting no answer, he had given up. Now, however, he looked at her eagerly and with a mocking expression on his face. He wasn't going to let her rest anymore after this.

"You would?" Pubble said, and clapped her hands in innocent joy, "how delightful! Aro would love to hear that!" I wondered what the reasons were that Aro had decided to let Pubble join the Volturi. She must be of some sort of value to him… I wondered if she was gifted. If she was, we had to watch out for her, because she seemed so Jane-like to me that I was afraid that she had similar gifts.

"Sure, pass him that message," Bella said with the same sarcastic expression as before, "maybe you can immediately add that I would like to have my freedom and that of my family back and that if they hurt Edward I will personally rip of all of your heads." The last words came out so threateningly that everyone in the room stopped breathing for a moment as to not spoil the moment. Again I wondered what had made Bella say this.

"Lovely," Pubble said with an angelic smile on her face that made me think of Jane again.

"Indeed, Bells, it's lovely to hear your voice again! Or should I say for the first time?" Felix interrupted the conversation.

"Felix, fuck you." Bella answered coldly and suddenly I understood. It must have something to do with Pub…

"Pubble, what exactly is your gift?" I asked her sharply.

"Hihi," she giggled, "you noticed it, didn't you? Don't you just like it? I can play with people's emotions!"

"Can you _not_ do that with Bella, please?" I asked as coldly as Bella just before and then I immediately closed my mouth. "stop that, Pubble."

"Sure, sure," she said and I felt in control of myself again while she stopped using her powers on me. "Anyway," she said, "I came here to tell you that Aro allows you to visit the rest of the castle, but only if you will be careful and won't cause any trouble."

"Really?" I asked, suddenly feeling so glad, "are we allowed to visit Edward and Jasper?"

"No. Perhaps later." I nodded and pulled Bella to her feet. We walked towards the door, but Demetri and Felix stopped us.

"Watch out, will you?" Demetri asked me and smiled friendly.

"Yeah, be careful, Bells," Felix added and I looked at him oddly. Okay, Demetri fell in love with me… But Felix with Bella? I shook my head in disbelieve and Bella looked at him as oddly as I did.

"And you care, because…?" she asked Felix.

"Just because." Felix shrugged and let us pass. Bella looked at me questioningly and I merely shrugged in response. All along, I had thought that Felix treated Bella like this because she was an interesting human being… and because she was going to turn into lunch any time soon. Now, however, I knew that Felix cared for her. What an odd world. Who knew that Felix was capable of being nice?

Bells and I walked out of the hall where our room was in, until we reached a big room. It was empty, except for Jane and Alec, who were standing in a corner. I stopped in my tracks but Bella noticed it too late and stepped another ten steps forward, until she could almost touch the pillar where Alec was standing.

"Bella, come back," I ordered softly, but it was too late and Alec walked towards us.

"Ah," he said, "look at this. Our most honorable guests…"

"And our kind hosts," I replied in the same tone.

"So, Isabella, I see that fate has spared you so far," Alec said, turning to Bells.

"And it will keep sparing her," I answered for Bella when she turned pale and was unable to answer.

"Perhaps fate will, but perhaps I won't," Alec said and grinned widely, "you see, Aro has given everyone the order to stay away from you two and to not hurt you… Everyone but me."

I shuddered. This was going wrong. Suddenly, I recognized the scene. Bella standing only fifteen feet away from me in the big, open room with pillars… I stopped breathing and wanted to turn around with the hopes of changing the future before it was too late… But it already _was_ too late.

"You are not going anywhere, little Alice," Alec said, and I felt my limbs locking, "and you are going to do the job for me. _You_ are going to kill Isabella, Alice."

I could not control my body anymore. I tried to stop the force that was moving my limbs, but I failed. A strong thirst suddenly overwhelmed my body, and I felt my venom flowing into my mouth. A snarl rose up in my throat as I lunged forward towards Bella's throat. I was moving so fast that Bella barely had time to be frightened…

Suddenly, I flew into a wall of marble and before I had time to react, my arms were being pushed behind me.

"Alec, stop it, now!" Felix roared. I looked up with thirst in my eyes. Anger. I had to kill Felix, because he was standing between me and my prey. He was protecting Bella with his life. He was the wall of marble I had bumped into. I heard Demetri's loud breath behind me and realized that he was trying hard to keep my arms locked together.

"Alec, now, or I'll personally kill you!" Felix screamed again when he saw that my determination to break free made me stronger that Demetri. I pulled one arm free and then kicked Demetri in his stomach. He was thrown backwarts but got to his feet before I had time to turn around and face Felix. Felix didn't dare to leave Bella's side so he could kill Alec, and therefore Alec kept ordering me to kill Bells.

There was only one thing that wasn't right… Alec had the strength to make people do things, but he didn't have the strength to make people feel like doing things… That only meant one thing: Pubble was playing with my emotions. I realized how incredibly dangerous she was, because I really wanted to kill Bella. I _had_ to. I _needed_ to drink her blood.

At the same time, I wished that Demetri would imprison me again or that Felix would even kill me. I could not live after having killed Bella.

"Let. Me. Go!" I screamed as Demetri got hold of one of my legs. I kicked him in the face this time and almost managed to behead him, but he was too quick. However, he was not recovered quickly enough and I threw myself at Felix ready to fight until one of us was dead.


	6. Chapter 6 : when strength is to be found

**Hey everyone, here is a new chapter, mostly full of action and sarcasm :P Hope you'll enjoy it, and well, please review ;-) I hope it is as good as everyone hopes it is, because otherwise this has all been for nothing. I like this chapter myself, because it's, well, building towards something, you know. Enjoy! Xxx Eline**

Chapter 6

I reached the place where Felix was standing within a nano-second. The force with which I hit him should have been enough to break down the Empire State Building, or to crush the Chinese Wall, but Felix had seen me coming and he was stronger than me.

I hit him so hard that the sound was like a bomb going off. But I knew that it would have been easier to crush the Chinese Wall, because the Chinese wall wouldn't be fighting back, and Felix was. Before I had recovered from the blow on my head, he threw me against a marble pillar, and the pillar broke because of it. I saw one big piece of marble flow towards Pubble's head, and she lost her focus on me for a moment. Immediately, I was in control of myself again. Yes, Aro had still got some power over me, but at least I didn't feel the rage, the anger, the thirst anymore. I could think clearly again.

It was so odd: Pub's power was quite similar to Jasper's, but so much stronger. So much more dangerous. Jasper's power was subtle, he could make little changes in the emotions people already head, but Pub could put a new emotion in one's head and make that emotion so strong that is was unstoppable…

I stood up and shook the marble out of my hear, ready to jump towards Bella again, but now without the rage in my body. I would be easier to defeat, and that was exactly what I wanted. I would rather die than hurt Bella, not only because it would kill Edward too, but also because I loved Bella. Bella was like the best friend, like my sister, like a true part of my life.

In the two-and-a-half seconds that I hadn't attacked anyone, Felix had tried to take Bella out of the room and Demetri had stood up again. Pub, too, had regained control over herself again and a new wave of rage dripped into my consciousness, making my reasonable thinking impossible. Just before Pub had full hold on me, I screamed at her: "what is wrong with you, why, why??"

I ran towards the door where Felix was heading, and because I was standing closer to it, I was there first and I stopped them. I showed my teeth and hissed. Felix stopped and quickly pushed Bella behind him.

"Alice, stop this, stop!" she cried and I felt that somewhere deep down inside me, I wanted to stop. I had the will to stop. Somewhere. But that will was clouded, repressed, like a shadow in my memories; I could feel the will to stop hunting Bella, but I couldn't use that will to actually do that.

"I won't." I hissed and I was afraid of my own voice, but stronger again than that fear, was my thirst. And Bella smelled awfully delicious.

"Yes, stop this, Alice," sounded a voice behind me, the pull of that voice was so strong that for one moment, I couldn't feel my thirst or my anger anymore. I looked around and saw Jasper standing there, and I wanted to hug him so dearly, to hold him in my arms, never to let him go again. For once, I felt vulnerable. But a new wave of anger filled my head again and I ignored Jazz and turned around to confront Felix again. Everyone in this room had amazing gifts, but no one's gift was as powerful as mine. I was the smallest and the weakest when it came to physical strength, but I had the power to win from all. I knew their moves before they did. I responded to their attacks before they had even made it close to me. I was lethal, just as Jasper had once described me: "frightening little monster".

My thoughts went back to Jasper and the anger faded again, love replacing it. I was getting so tired of my mood swings, it felt like my brains were going to give up soon. But the love I felt was soon again replaced when Bella moved and I so dearly wanted to eat her again. It was disturbing: I couldn't see the outcome of this fight.

"Alice, focus!" Jasper's soothing voice came from behind me. He felt exactly how I felt right now, so he knew in what situation I was… I focused, or at least I tried to, but Felix moved Bella and I caught her scent again. I had to kill her. There was no choice, it wasn't about wanting to or not wanting to, being forced to or doing it out of free will, I just had no choice. I had to. I saw that Jasper was going to pull me away from the door, so I stepped aside and ran around Felix towards Bella. Since I had seen that Felix would try to catch me from the left side, I came from her right… And I felt her arm in my hand, her scared face only inches away from my lethal teeth…

And again I was thrown away. I hadn't seen this one coming. It was Demetri who was now throwing me to the floor, pushing my hands behind me. Jazz helped with my left wrist but in my anger, I felt a new physical strength rising in me. I threw Demetri away from me and he hit Jasper and they both fell to the ground. I jumped at Bella again, and this time, I threw her to the ground, not hard, because I didn't want to kill her yet. Her blood had to be warm while I drank it. I showed my teeth and hissed at Bella. Her face showed no fear. Her face was soothing now. Trying to sooth _me_. This was so strange, so sweet and so overly brave, that for a moment, I paused.

"Don't, Alice, don't," Bella said, her voice didn't shake anymore. So many emotions were trying to get a hold of me, that I was going crazy. For within my anger, I had a little sense of sweet feelings left. And Bella, who was sacrificing herself at the moment, so brave, so tiny, so fragile, she touched my nice emotions. I looked at her and in the mirror of her eyes, I could see the reflection of my pained face. I was crying. No tears, no salt water running over my cheeks, but I was definitely crying. I hadn't done that in seventy years. It felt odd, not like me. But then again, I didn't feel like me at all at the moment.

But Pubble's power was stronger than my brief moment of vulnerability, and the anger came back. I tried to bite Bella in her neck, but in the middle of my movement, a new emotion came into my mind. I didn't overthrow Pub's power, no, I tried to fight it. It was like there was a war going on in my head: Pubble's anger causing my own emotions to stop being, and on the other side, the new emotions, not as strong as Pubble's, but clearly trying to fight them.

Pubble stopped concentrating on overthrowing my emotions, and started to fight the new emotions in my head. My head was to small for all this conflict, but at least I could think again. I did not bite Bella. I stared at my hands in horror and let go of her wrists. I leaned back, and Felix immediately walked to her side and helped her run away. The fight was getting harder inside of my head, and the power was getting stronger. Suddenly, I knew what it was: it was Jasper, trying to save me. His powers were not as strong as Pubble's, but he could concentrate better, and his powers were kinder. Kind powers _had_ to win.

I was standing there, in the middle of the room, alone, like everyone was scared of me. They probably were. I made weird movements, when the sweet emotions were gaining strength, I felt like kissing everyone and when the anger and thirst were winning for a moment again, I wanted to kill everybody. Jasper was stronger than I had expected. He was leaning against a wall, his eyes shut, focusing only on me. On the other side of the room, Pubble was standing, her eyes shot too, anger all over her face.

Why didn't anyone stop her? I knew the answer: Alec was ordering them not to. He was enjoying this. But Alec's power had no hold on me at the moment, my brain was too confused to care about his stupid orders. And so, I ran towards Pubble, trying to focus all of my anger on her. Jasper thought that I was getting angry because of Pubble, and he sent me a new wave of sweet emotions.

This was so wrong. I suddenly couldn't think of killing Pub. I wanted to hug her, tell her that she was sweet… I stopped in my tracks, disgusted by the idea of hugging and kissing the little rat. Again, the others stared at me weirdly. They didn't understand the war going on in my head and they only saw me making weird movements, my facial expressions changing every two seconds.

Finally, Jasper seemed to get what was going on, and he pulled the sweet thoughts out of my head. I started running towards Pub again, and this time, I saw her eyes grow big in horror. She saw me, the lethal weapon, coming towards her to kill her… I focused all the anger I had on that sweet and innocent face, and I bumped into her on full speed. The anger went right out of my head, and only my own emotions were left when we broke through the wall of the big ballroom and landed in the dust in the chamber next to it. I held Pub to the ground, she couldn't move. I should kill her, I knew that, but I knew at the same moment that it wouldn't be clever. We were here, in a hole full of Volturi, and it would _not_ be smart to kill one of their allies.

Suddenly, just when I thought that everything was over, I felt pain. Horrible, stinging pain all over and in my body. I cringed in horror onto the ground and I screamed, oh yes, I screamed at the top of my lungs. I heard someone else scream as well: Jasper, and Bella, and Demetri. They were screaming "no!" while I only yelled and screamed and roared from the pain.

It was as if someone was snapping my spine slowly and painfully, one bone at a time. Like my scull was cracked and my legs were torn… And at the same moment, that person was enjoying it… I could feel it. I had foreseen this moment the day we had left home, and now it had come true. It was more horrible than it had been in my vision. I was going to die, I was sure, I was going to die. I could feel my consciousness slipping away, fading…

"Enough, Jane, my love," Aro's voice sounded and the pain stopped. I lay there, and if I would have had the ability to sweat, I would have lain there in a pool of sweat. I was panting, but at the same time, my body felt deliciously good again. My mind was mine, my body was mine.

I stood up as soon as I could, and Jasper walked to my side immediately.

"How are you?" he muttered in my ear, I could hear his voice was full of anger and fear.

"Great, how are you?" I asked him sarcastically, as if we were talking over a cup of tea.

"Sorry," he breathed and kissed the top of my head.

Someone coughed, and we turned back to Aro and his companions. Almost everyone had arrived.

"Alice, why have you caused such a commotion?" Aro asked in a voice that was so gentle that he didn't fool me at all: I was still trembling on my legs, not standing steadily and I knew I looked horrible: he must know what had happened.

"Oh, I don't know," I said, sarcastic, again (I was taking over that habit from Bella!), "I just thought, hey, why won't I just break the ballroom down and make sure that every vampire by whom we are held captive hates us. I thought it would be clever."

"Dear, _dear_ little Alice," Aro continued, "we have been so nice and gentle to you," Jasper snorted hatefully, "and this is what we get in return? Is this how you treat friends?"

"Aro, hopefully you've got enough brains in your tiny head to understand what has happened here!" I yelled at him, loosing my temper again (I should have killed Pub while I still had the chance!) and Jasper sent me a calming wave. I answered more calmly than before: "Aro, I treat my friends as if they are gods. If it had been me, I would have never acted this way. No, Alec and Pubble decided to _play_ for a while. They wanted me to kill Bella. I had to defend myself and her, Aro, and you understand that."

"What should we do about this, Aro?" Caius asked, who stood beside Aro, "she's caused enough trouble already. Let's give her a proper… punishment." He showed his teeth. Jasper growled and went to stand before me.

"Everything's back to normal," Aro said, "nobody's harmed. As long as our guests pay for the damage they have done –and with that, I mean with money- everything will be fine." He smiled friendly while Caius walked away with chagrin all over his face. Aro must really want me at his side as the Volturi's fortuneteller, I was sure, or otherwise he would have gotten me killed long ago.

"Feline, Alec, Jane," Aro called, "since you have started this, you should take care of the mess. I want to have this room cleaned by _tonight_." I laughed out loud. This was the only thing that was good about today, Aro's dearest followers being punished. They shot me hateful looks.

When the peace had returned, Jasper and I, after having talked for some time, walked over to Bells carefully.

"Oh Bells," I said, "will you ever be able to forgive me?" Bella was shaking all over her body, and Felix was standing next to her as a bodyguard. She seemed to have fully accepted him as a trustworthy person, annoying as he was.

"Alice, how could I _not_ forgive you? This wasn't you doing, it was Pubble. I'm just so glad that everything turned out right." Bella threw her arms around me and hugged me in a big hug that would have hurt if I had been human. I smiled, because I had thought that Bella would be so scared of me, that she would think that I still wanted to kill her. Good thing that Bella was so crazy, for I didn't know what I should do without her.

When Bella let go of me, she turned to Jasper, shook his hand like siblings do, and said: "Oh Jasper, I'm so glad you're okay! I'm so sad that Edward isn't with you. He's doing okay, right? Where is he?" She glanced around Jasper to double-check the room, but Edward wasn't there. I swallowed, for Jasper had already told me.

"Bella?" Jasper said hesitantly, "Edward will not be here anymore…"

Bella's body responded before her mind did: she shook on her legs, and looked as if she was going to faint.

"What do you mean, Jasper?" Bella said with a voice that shook.

"It means that he is gone, Bella," I answered, "Edward is gone."

I caught Bella before she hit the ground when she collapsed, and I wished I could cry, so I could cry with her.


	7. Chapter 7 : when loyalty is tested

**The climactic battle, everyone. but this is not the final chapter. there will still be one after this, mpre exciting than this one. sorry it took me so long, but as you can see, this is the longest chapter so far. Please review, and enjoy!**

**xxx Eline**

**ps, I'm looking for a beta reader! anyonen interested? please contact me! xxx**

"That can't be true," Bella whispered, "Edward is here. He's just captured, just like us." She seemed to reassure herself by that. I didn't know where she got the self-control every time. She used to be the emotional one, the girl who cried about everything, strong but emotional. These last days, it seemed as if the emotional part was gone and only the strong girl remained. I was beginning to believe that she would make a great vampire. A very talented one.

Bella sat up and stroke her legs to get the feeling back into them. "Never scare me like that again, okay?" she said to me, and if the situation had been any less serious, I would have laughed at her weak attempt to look severe. Okay, that was one part at being a vampire that she would never be able to do well: acting.

I realized that I, myself, was trying to pull myself back together by trying to be funny. I had to speak to myself severely before I could act normally again and understand the full size of what was happening. Edward was gone. Our future was gone. Again.

"Bella," Jasper said, who had always been mentally stronger than I was and had kept his mind together, "you have to understand, Edward is-"

"Here. Right here," Bella interrupted and then a little sob rose from her throat.

"He's gone," Jasper said again, and he looked deeply into Bella's eyes, as if he was trying to stare the truth into them. Bella's eyes grew big for a moment and her heart skipped a few beats. Her breathing stopped just a few seconds and I thought that a panic attack was starting.

Then suddenly, her heart started again, she sighed deeply and her bewildered eyes turned normal again.

"I see," she finally said, "I see."

She nodded and looked at me sadly. "He has run away." It wasn't a question, but an assumption. Jasper nodded in return and I said: "He… He's lost his mind, Bella. He ran away because he had lost his mind."

"What on earth have they done to him?" Bella said and her eyes opened in horror. I wondered why she was reacting like this. Why she wasn't collapsing, or having a stroke. This wasn't her normal reaction. She had changed so much in the past few weeks, that she had become some sort of unemotional machine. I didn't like it. We already had one person who had lost his mind, so please, don't make it two.

"I don't know," Jasper answered, "but it certainly isn't good. They wanted him to join the Volturi so badly, that they tried to _make_ him agree."

"And they did that too much," I added, "and he couldn't take it anymore. He turned mad and in some way – I don't know how, nobody's ever done that before- he escaped."

In my head, I saw that there was a future that had not formed completely yet. But it was going to be something special. I couldn't wait to figure out what it was, but, on the other hand, I didn't want to know it either, for, according to what was happening around us, it probably wasn't anything good. God, how I yearned for good news.

Bella had got up.

"We have to get him to safety. We can't let him kill himself," she said, and she stubbornly held out her chin.

"Bells, he's not going to kill himself. Not as long as we are still alive. As long as you are still alive," I answered her, and at the same time, I knew that what I said was the truth. The future that was forming inside of my head was getting clearer. Edward was not going to die any time soon. That meant that he had run away and that he had found a good place to hide. At least I hoped that it meant that. I didn't want to think of anything more depressing, though I knew that there was a good chance that something bad was going to happen. Or already had.

"If he stays away, and it is true that he is so valuable to Aro, then they will send a lot of Volturi after him. He's in grave danger." Jasper voice sounded as grave as the danger was. Jasper, too, loved Edward. But at the same time, I could read from his face that he saw possibilities. He was created for war, and he always thought like he was in the middle of a war. Like right now, I knew that he was thinking of the good things about the Volturi going after Edward; it meant that there were less Volturi to watch us. Yes, Jasper loved Edward and wanted him to be safe, but he would sacrifice Edward if that was needed to safe me. I didn't want that.

"Bella's right, Jazz," I said, "we have to make sure that Edward is safe," I continued so fast that Bella couldn't make out the words: "It wouldn't only kill him if this went wrong, you know…"

"I know," Jasper whispered and looked down embarrassedly. He wanted the best for Bella as well, but he just didn't know how to combine that with wanting what was best for me. Poor Jazz, it was so difficult to want to safe everyone without knowing what the future would be. On the other hand, I did know what the future would be, and that wasn't always fun either.

"Look, this is what we do," I said and I looked at Bella and Jasper pleadingly, "we are going to continue with what we were doing here before, make friends and infiltrate and stuff. We already have Felix and Demetri on our side, and even though I don't know whose side they will chose when it comes to a battle, at least we have them hesitating about what to do and every person hesitating about there loyalty to the Volturi, is good for us. So let's be gentle to everyone and make them like us, like we made Demetri and Felix like us. Besides, those last two have deserved our friendliness."

"I like Demetri and Felix," Bella whispered, "they are kind and they saved us, Alice."

"I owe them big time," Jasper nodded, "if Demetri hadn't been there on time, Alice could have gotten killed…"

I smiled at him. "I'm still alive and kicking," I winked.

"You never stop kicking, Alice, that's why you are so strong and valuable to the Volturi," he kissed me tenderly on my nose.

"Okay," I said, "so let's all act as normally as we can until I get a glimpse of the future. Until then, it's dangerous just to do something random. We have to know the consequences of our deeds before we do them, we don't know how our acts will affect Edward's future."

We all agreed after having spoken about things for a while. We would just continue with what we had been doing before Pub had decided to ruin the peace and break into my mind. Meanwhile, we would find out as much about the Volturi's secrets and weaknesses as we could.

The days moved even slower than before. The dullness spread over us like a thick blanket where we couldn't crawl away from. Bella and I were sitting in our room again as before and she was spending the time with sleeping and talking to Felix. Him saving her live had created some sort of bond between them that Edward would not like at all. I, myself, liked Felix even though he was a self-absorbed ass who flirted with Bella every chance he got.

I spent my time with Jasper, who was allowed to visit me now every day. We communicated with much difficulty, because we couldn't speak out loud about our escape plans. We had taken up our bet again about who of us would come with a plan first, and for once I had the feeling that I would win. The visions in my head were getting clearer, still no more than vague images and feelings, but at least it was colorful and light. Perhaps there was some sort of way to get out of here; all I hoped was that Edward would be able to return to normal again. It hurt to think of him all crazy and alone all the time.

The fourth day after the battle, I suddenly felt a change in the visions in my head. I didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. The visions hadn't become any clearer over the past few days, and this was the first change in a long time. All my visions disappeared. They were just gone, I could not see anything. It made me feel blind, like my normal sight didn't matter as much as long as I could see the future. Now I was just like everyone else. It made me feel weak.

"Jasper!" I hissed and Demetri looked up.

"What's up, Alice?" he asked.

"I need to talk to Jazz, Demetri," I said and put Bella, who had fallen asleep against my shoulder somewhere around midnight, against the wall.

"Is it urgent?" Demetri asked and he got up immediately.

"Yes."

Demetri left the room without asking any more questions. I really liked him. He was a good person. Two minutes later, he returned with Jasper, who stalked into the room as if he thought that he would find my bleeding body there on the floor.

"What is it, Alice?" he asked me, with a bewildered look on his face, "are you hurt?"

"No, Jazz, it's just," I looked at Demetri and Felix shortly and decided to speak in codes, "the thing that happened last spring break to me, is happening again." Last spring was the battle we fought against the newborns with the wolves. I had lost my vision for a while then.

"You mean physically or mentally?" Jazz asked.

"Mentally."

For some sort of reason, Jasper suddenly started to smile and his eyes looked full of hope. This wasn't the reaction I had expected. I had expected Jasper to be as concerned as I was. He saw that Demetri and Felix looked eyed him suspiciously and Jazz quickly composed his face.

"I think I have won our bet," Jasper said and smiled again. I didn't understand what he meant, had I somehow given him inspiration? Or had he understood something about my lack of visions that I had not? Oh, it frustrated me so much that I couldn't see anything! I suddenly felt blind and stupid, just as I had last year.

Oh.

I understood.

It was _exactly_ as last year. Jasper had understood it before I had. My failing visions meant that the pack of la Push wolves were involved in the future. There was hope for us after all. But it couldn't… They wouldn't be coming here, would they?

Would they?

"No, that can't be," I told Jasper, "they wouldn't…"

"It's the only way to explain this," Jasper said, and his mouth opened into a hopeful smile. I laughed in return, though the sound of it was nervous and uneven. I was concerned. If it was true that the wolves were coming here, something I really couldn't believe, it was good for us, but it could end real badly for them… I liked them a lot and I didn't want them to be hurt because of us. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to them. They were still so young, inexperienced, children even.

Did Jacob love Bella so much that he would come all the way here to save her? And how did he know that we were here? So many questions, and so little answers! It frustrated me and it gave me a headache.

"The question is, how? And when?" Jasper mused. I shrugged. I didn't know either. That didn't happen often. Jasper always called me his know-it-all

"How, I've got no idea, when, is soon, because they have already made up their mind," I answered.

"Really, I think it's cute, the way you two think alike, but please don't speak in riddles. I like gossip," Felix interfered.

"Well, if you like gossip so much, you should read CosmoGirl," I snapped back and ignored him for the rest.

Felix grinned but luckily shut up. Demetri was a clever person and for some reason, I thought he understood partially. He was looking from Jasper to me and back again and he was nodding. For some reason, I couldn't really care about him knowing. I trusted Demetri completely.

"So what do we do now?" I asked Jasper.

"Now we wait," he answered and I nodded. He was right, there wasn't much that we could do. I didn't know when this would all happen, no, I know nothing of the future anymore.

"But what could Jacob do, then?" I asked, knowing that using his name didn't matter. No one knew the names of the wolves anyway.

"Who's Jacob?" Felix asked.

"I don't know what, Alice, we just have to hope that everything will turn out right," Jasper answered me.

"What will turn out right?" Felix asked.

"Yes, indeed," I answered, "or we'll be screwed. Everyone will be screwed."

"Now what kind of an orgy are you getting yourselves into?" Felix asked.

"Yes, indeed," Jasper answered me while sighing, "that'll suck hard."

"Yes, definitely an orgy," Felix muttered, "can I come?"

"It won't be fun," I said as an answer to what Jasper had said.

"Well it certainly _sounds_ like fun," Felix interfered.

"Felix," I said, finally turning to him when I figured out that ignoring him wouldn't make him stop, "please go and tell your dirty ideas to someone who's actually interested."

"No," Bella muttered, she had woken up because of our loud conversation. I looked at her questioningly. She liked Felix so much now that he could be annoying in our presence?

"You can't make him search for someone who's interested, Alice, for he will have to keep searching for like, forever," Bella said and yawned.

Everyone laughed except for Felix himself. He was trying to look cool, even though he was humiliated by the weakest person he knew, and moreover, loved. He didn't succeed.

"Well, you will just continue to talk about dirty parties and all, while I," he looked at all of us shortly, "will go somewhere to make myself useful."

"Sure tell yourself that, Felix," Demetri said and laughed, "if it makes you feel better."

Felix walked away, grumbling indecent and unintelligible words to himself.

"So," Jasper said to me when Felix was completely out of sight, "I'm going to see what I can find out. you watch Bella." He stood up and walked way. We sat there for a while, while I listened to Bella's breathing getting more even until she was asleep again. Finally, Demetri broke the silence.

"You found a way to get out of here, didn't you?" he asked me.

"We hope so," I answered him honestly.

"Will it be dangerous?"

"Yes. But we have to try nonetheless, Demetri."

"Why?"

"Because I'm sick of being here," I answered, "I've lost my freedom and I've lost a brother and I'm not planning to lose more. I'm sick of having to sit here all day, worrying about all things around me, wanting to save Bella's life all the time but failing in all my attempts to do it. I'm sick of missing my family and not knowing how they're doing. I'm sick of not knowing what is going to happen and I'm definitely sick of all you human-blood drinking vampires around me. I'm sick of it, Demetri, and I have to leave!"

"I understand," Demetri said and he looked at the floor ashamedly, "I'll miss you."

Then, suddenly, I recognized the situation out of one of my visions.

"I know," I answered Demetri, because I knew exactly why he would miss me.

"You know…" he added and I already knew what he was going to say, because I had seen it in one of my visions before.

"I have feelings for you," he said and he looked down embarrassedly.

"I know," I answered, "and I think it is really kind, Demetri, but I'm with Jasper, and I will always be with Jasper."

"I know, Alice, I just wanted you to know."

"It's okay, Demetri. I know now." I wanted to say more, but then the door quickly opened and Felix entered, looking as if he was in a hurry. He smashed the door against the wall with such a force that Bella awoke with a loud gasp.

"I told you that I would find something useful to do!" he said victoriously, "Demetri, we have a new assignment."

"What is it?" Demetri said, standing up immediately.

Felix looked at Bella for a moment, hesitating if he would tell what he knew, but then he decided that we could handle the information.

"The insane one, Edward, has turned on everything around him and he is destroying a city in Russia at the moment, exposing his powers to the world. We have to go there and stop him, before he exposes us all."

"He's alive!" Bella said, sounding so relieved that I wondered if she had understood anything of what Felix had said.

"He's in Russia destroying a city?" I asked Felix incredulously, "so he has turned mad, then. He would never have done that is he were sane. What… What are you going to do to him if you find him?"

"Well, we have stop him from exposing us, but we aren't allowed to destroy him, don't worry, Aro is still too determined to have him on our side. Why, it beats me, but apparently he is very valuable. But he is also strong, so we are going with a lot of us."

"How many?" Demetri asked.

"You, me, Jane and Alec, Pub, and about twenty others."

"What?" I asked, "is he that important? That would mean that there are like 25 of you left here! Why would Aro take such a risk?"

"Because he finds it very important not to be exposed, and, because he wants Edward alive." I nodded. He was right, if the humans found out that vampires existed, everything we have worked for for so long would have been for nothing, all the newly restored peace would be gone. Forever.

"When will we leave?" Demetri asked Felix.

"In an hour."

"What?"

"Yes, we have to hurry, before it's too late."

Felix smiled at all of us, winked at Bella and asked her to watch out for herself, then left the room. Demetri soon followed him, after having asked the same thing at all of us and after he had smiled a sad smile at me.

"Good luck, you guys, with escaping," he whispered, "I wish you the greatest of luck."

"Thank you, Demetri," I answered, "please be careful with Edward, okay? Make sure he gets out of here alive. Please?" Demetri didn't answer but just left the room, leaving us in doubt of the future.

"So, what now?" Bella broke the silence.

"Now we will leave," Jasper said.

"Sorry?" Bella said.

"Bells, Alice can't see the future anymore, which means that the Indians are involved. They've got a pack of eleven wolves now, and we have got two more vampires here. In an hour, this castle will be the worst defended vampire-castle in the world. We've got a chance of winning and getting out alive. Edward would have wanted us to do this…"

"So you're saying that it is a good thing that Edward lost his mind?" I asked Jasper sharply.

"No!" Bella suddenly said, "No! He hasn't lost his mind!"

"Yes, he has, Bells," I slowly said, trying to make her understand.

"No, can't you see? He has planned this all very carefully! It is so obvious, can't you see, Alice? Edward disappears, having lost his mind, or so it seems, and suddenly, your vision disappears. He couldn't call Jacob from here, because everyone would hear, so he needed to get away from here to be able to contact the wolves. Then, to get away safely, he had to pretend to have gone mad, because otherwise, they would follow and fight him, and he would definitely lose. However, when he would lose his mind, everyone would pity him and give him a couple of hours before they hunted him down. And now, he also has an excuse to run around doing idiotic things, without people questioning why. Nobody has figured out that this is all part of a master plan, because they all think he has gone mad!"

"It all sounds like it makes sense, Bells," Jasper said, "there is only one thing: why is Edward destroying things and exposing vampires at the moment in Russia if he isn't insane?"

"Because," I slowly explained because I understood what she meant, "it is genius. He's sacrificing himself for us. He is pretending to be mad, so everyone will look for him and go to Russia, which is on the other side of the world. Volterra is left almost unguarded, giving the wolves the chance to win the battle!"

"But what will happen to him? Or the wolves?" Bella said, sounding concerned, "most of them are still so young… And so inexperienced. And 25 talented vampires against ten young werewolves and two vampires and a human being? And what about Edward?"

"Everything will be alright, Bella," I reassured her, "Edward must have thought this over completely. He wouldn't have done this if he weren't sure that you would get out alive. You know that." I tried to reassure myself as well. I really wanted everything to turn out right, I didn't want Jacob and the others hurt or killed and I wanted Edward to survive. But how would it turn out alright? What master-plan did Edward have to make us get out of this? Certainly some were going to die if it was ten against twenty-five…

Then two vampires entered the room, telling us that they had the assignment to baby-sit us. I had seen both once or twice in the hallway, but I'd never spoken to them. One of them, a female called Stella, was a bit manlike, tall, with broad shoulders and thick dark hair, the other, a male called Vince, was, like the name already suggested, the typical mafia-type: short, mean, and with dark, piercing eyes. They leaned against the wall and sent Jasper away. Apparently, they weren't going to be as flexible as Felix and Demetri had been. Sure, Felix was an annoying, flirting ass, but he was friendly when needed and he liked Bells so much that he was willing to give attention to her, he was nice to tease and he was funny (if he wasn't annoying). Demetri had proven himself to be a real friend; he was a nice person to talk to, he was calm and friendly, and he was a trustworthy person who was okay with the idea of us breaking out of the castle of his gang… I liked the both of them. And they liked us and had never treated us as prisoners. Jasper could visit whenever he wanted and we were allowed to walk through the corridors alone whenever we felt the need to.

Stella and Vince, however, weren't like that. They were unfriendly persons, with the personality that humans would expect if they thought about vampires, and they certainly wouldn't treat us as people. Integrity was what was their talent, and they would guard us and treat us as enemies until the end. The end that was near, by the way, because I could feel it.

I noticed that Bella was chewing away her fingernails, a sign of her stress. I tried to calm her down several times, but we weren't allowed to talk to each other or to sit next to each other, so she was alone on one side of the room. Jasper was already sent away an hour before, to the room next to hours, guarded by three vampires the size of Emmett. I missed him. I missed Emmett, Esme, Carlisle, even Rose. I missed the peace of my family. But if everything would turn out alright, we would be able to be with them within thirty-six hours.

"Stop biting your nails, Isabella Swan," Stella suddenly said in a low voice, "you're making me nuts."

Bella quickly stopped. She was rarely scared of vampires anymore because most of them were kind to her, but Stella and Vince were really threatening. Stella was making me very angry. She didn't have the right to treat Bella like this: of course Bella was stressing and biting her nails! Her whole life was falling to pieces one by one, she had enough reason to act like this. Stella crossed the line, and so I couldn't keep myself from saying: "We aren't making you nuts, Stella, for you already are nuts. No one has to help you with that…"

"Excuse me?" Stella said, not sounding excusing at all.

"You heard me," I said, feeling a bit concerned because she was twenty inches taller than me and a lot more muscular. Plus, I couldn't see the future anymore. It wouldn't be a fair fight.

"You should be careful with what you're saying, miss Cullen," Stella added, "I'm here to guard you and I can treat you the way I want."

"Well, I wonder how you are going to hurt me when Aro wants me to join your coven unharmed."

"I don't care, I will kill you if I need to." She showed me her fangs and I saw they were sharper than mine. Sigh. I was getting myself into trouble again.

"As _if_," I said to her. Bella watched us anxiously, Vince was enjoying it, but ready to help his mate when necessary.

Stella jumped up and lumped forward, but before she could reach me, I had already jumped up, running towards the other side of the room. Stella might be stronger than me, but I was still smaller and faster than her, but she was close behind me.

Before she could crush me into the wall, the door opened and Jasper and his guards ran inside. Stella stopped in her pursue immediately and pretended to be calmly walking around the room. I did so too, trying not to make too much commotion.

"Stella, Vince, you have to come! There are people trying to get into the castle," one of Jasper's guards said.

"Humans?" Stella asked incredulously.

"No, some sort of super-humans. They aren't vampires, but they are really strong and big. And with a lot."

They all left the room before the end of the second, leaving us unguarded.

"So it has started!" Jasper said, "freedom awaits! We have to fight with them, but what to do about Bella?"

"Well," a familiar, husky voice came from behind me, "let me handle that, Alice."

"Jacob! You came!" Bella said and stood up, running towards him and hugging him.

"You look like crap, Bells," Jacob said, but hugged her gently, "but I'm happy to see you. Let's get you out of here." He turned to us, "I think you should go fight with the others, for you know what their weaknesses are. I'll get Bells to safety and then I'll come back to help you out. Good luck!" Without another word, Jake picked up Bella and ran out of the room, while, on the other side of the castle, a huge cracking sound could be heard, that I recognized as the breaking of another pillar in the ballroom.

Poor Alec, Jane and Pubble, (not!) they had just cleaned up the room where Pub had fought me, and now it was broken again. I laughed, then I kissed Jasper gently and pulled him out of the room, running towards the loud noises. Perhaps this would finally be the time where the reign of the Volturi could be overthrown and we could all go home safely to Forks.

We reached the main hall where three large Quileute members were running from Jasper's guards, who weren't as tall but three times as masculine. Without thinking anymore, I ran forwards to protect Embry, Quil, and a young pack member I did not know. They were still so young, and they had come here for reasons that were unknown to me - I knew that Jacob had come for Bella, because Edward had asked him, and that Seth, Embry and Quil would follow him everywhere, but why would the others come here? What was in it for them? Either death or eternal glory, but death was more likely.

One of Jasper's guards had almost caught up to Embry, and his hand already flew towards his neck. But I was faster. I jumped on the guard's neck, banging his head against the nearest wall (and breaking it again.)

We weren't the only ones fighting, and I had just broken the last remaining wall, the ceiling was now resting on three pillars.

"We have to get out of here!" I screamed, while I ran away from Jasper's guards, "the ceiling is going to fall down any minute! Quil! Embry! Get out of here!" Quil was hitting a small female against her head, Embry was standing in a corner, his hands trembling. This was going very wrong. We had to get out of here.

"Embry! Quil! Listen to me! We have to get out of here!" Move vampires from all over the castle were coming into the ballroom, and the ceiling was cracking. The vampires would survive it if the ceiling came crushing down on them but would the wolves survive? Jacob had told Bella once that the wolves may not be made out of stone, but they weren't soft either. But were they hard enough to walk away alive when three stories of ancient castle marble fell on top of their heads? I guessed not.

I called for Embry and Quil again, but because they were so busy and concentrated, they didn't hear me. There were already ten vampires in the room, four fighting Jasper, two fighting me and two fighting each of the Indians, for the one I did not know the name of had fled, after I had heard a cracking sound that seemed to come from three of his ribs. Embry's hands started to turn into claws, but this wasn't the time for them to turn into wolves: they wouldn't be able to get out through the doors. On the other hand, they weren't able to fight five full-grown vampires in their human form either. I doubted if they were able to fight them as wolves: winning the fight with the newborns last spring had made them overconfident, but these vampires weren't newborns anymore, they were old and talented. They would win.

This fight was different from all other fights that I had ever fought before: not only because it was in a castle of the strongest coven ever, but also because I couldn't use my visions to know what my opponents were going to do. It was dangerous. Yes, I was strong and I was an okay fighter, but that was all average, I wasn't as talented at fighting as all the people here. The only thing that made me win all my fights, was my power to see into the future. I didn't see it now, and that's why I didn't see it coming that one of Jasper's guards got hold of my foot. He swung me around as if I was a baseball bat, then let go of me so that I flew through the room with a speed of nearly 200 miles per hour. I saw, as if in slow-motion, that I was flying towards a pillar, one of the last pillars that was still standing. I would definitely break it if I flew against, and I couldn't stop myself before I did it. As if that wasn't enough, eight other wolves, still in human form, ran into the room, to save Embry and Quil. Among them was Jacob, without Bella, and cute little Seth Clearwater and his sister, Sam, the leader of the pack, and all the others. And they would die if the ceiling would come down. Everything had been for nothing, because everything was going to end. And I was helping the end to come sooner, because I felt my head hitting the pillar.

One of the last pillars still standing. I was lying on the ground, dazed and confused because of the force of the blow.

"Break the pillars!" a small vampire screamed, for she had heard my warnings that I had shouted to Embry and Quil, "let the ceilings come down!"

I heard another crack, another pillar cracking. The Volturi had begun destroying the pillars because of me. I had helped them to find a way to destroy the wolves.

I saw Jacob on the other side of the room fighting three vampires at once, while at the same time, he was trying to get the other vampires away from the pillars that were still standing. His whole body was trembling. I wondered why he would do that now. He knew that If he would turn into a wolf, he wouldn't be able to get out of the room. Oh. I saw. He was sacrificing himself to save the others.

"NO! Jacob!" I screamed and I jumped up from the ground, running from one side of the room to the other in a mere second, jumping at the neck of the vampire who was closest to Jacob. Jacob smiled.

"Thanks, Alice!" he screamed and then he kicked the vampire who was trying to get me of his neck against the head. I felt a connection with Jacob, we were both fighting for our lives, but both willing to die for the others. And we were both working on the last thing right now.

The two of us were fighting five vampires at once at the moment, luring more and more of them towards us. I heard Jasper scream my name, but was too busy to respond.

I kicked someone away from Jacob when I heard Jazz scream my name again. It sound more urgent this time, so I looked up, getting the shock of my life.

Jasper was standing in the place of the last pillar, holding up the ceiling with both of his hands. I already saw two enemy vampires jumping towards Jasper, who could have easily stopped them but was now harmless, for he couldn't fight back. He was saving us as well. Were we all trying to save each other by killing ourselves today?

"Alice!" Jasper screamed, "take the kids out of here and make a run for it, before the ceiling will come down!"

"But-" I wanted to answer, but he interrupted me.

"Alice! Do it now!"

I nodded, he was trying to save me above all. Well, I wasn't going to let that happen.

"Jacob, do as Jazz says!" I said, and Jacob nodded, running towards Embry and Quil. I ran towards Seth, who was standing in a corner, surrounded by three large females. I threw them aside and got hold of Seth, dragging him with me to a door and throwing him through it. Sam was there, giving his Alpha-orders to everyone to get themselves to safety: the wolves could do nothing but obey.

Jasper was still standing in the middle of the room, holding up the ceiling, while being attacked by three vampires at once. I ran towards him and tried to fight them off, while I saw that many vampires followed the wolves outside. Only eight were left in the room with us, fighting the two of us.

We were going to lose this fight, but at least the wolves and Bella would be safe, and at least I would die with Jasper. Not alone, and not only him either.

"Alice! GO AFTER THE WOLVES!" Jasper screamed through gritted teeth.

"No way, Jazz, I love you too much for that!" I answered and remained at his side.

I fought off two more vampires, while I began to understand that we were defeated, for they were breaking through our defenses.

Right at the moment that I heard a cracking sound and two howling wolves, the ceiling began to crack and one vampire hit me in the stomach. I flew backwards and landed in the dust.

I saw how the other vampires made a run for Jasper, and I howled and screamed along with the almost defeated wolves in the room next to ours.

_Nooooooooooooo! Not Jasper!_ I thought, and cried hard. I tried to stand up and fight more, but I was too late.

Three flashes made their way for the vampires who were fighting Jasper and for the ones who were coming after me. The flashes moved so quickly that even I couldn't see who they were. They threw the enemy vampires away, and fought them some more.

"Now get away from my brother and sister!" I heard Emmett's voice, roaring and loud.

Emmett, Rose, Esme and Carlisle had come to help us out. And there were three other fighting vampires on our side that moved so quickly that I couldn't see who they were. One of them was moving towards me.

"Are you alright, Alice?" I heard Demetri's voice. My mouth fell open. Felix and Demetri were fighting on our side.

"I'm willing to lose this battle, as long as I'm fighting on the good side," Demetri said, helping me get up. I nodded and we threw ourselves into the fights.

Were we able to win this?


	8. chapter 8 : when all goes wrong

**Hi Everyone! This is the last chapter. This is one chapter with God knows how much action, romance and –yes, there is still some space for it left- humor. So enjoy reading and please review this final chapter to my way-too-long fanfiction.**

**-----------------------------**

**Chapter 8**

**-**

**When all goes wrong**

We were now fighting a fair fight: eight against eight. I finally had some peace to concentrate on the future again, and I focused on the moves of the others.

Every time a loud, ripping noise sounded, I looked up anxiously, to see if it was one of us or one of them. But it never was any one of us. We were winning.

Jasper was trying real hard to protect me, although it really wasn't necessary anymore. I was safe, for I could see what was going to happen.

It felt good to fight with my family, and it made up for those weeks that we had been separated from them. Okay, Emmett and Rose sometimes annoyed the crap out of me, but situations like this showed me that I actually loved them so much that it was hard to live without them.

It was over within three minutes, because we were just so much stronger. The eight vampires that we had been fighting, had been the youngest here, not anymore newborns, but not full-grown yet either. We had centuries of experience, they only had years. They must be talented, of course, otherwise they wouldn't be part of the Volturi's guard, but their talents were not efficient in battles or they hadn't been able to practice much yet. Either way, they weren't as strong as we were. And they weren't as bonded as we were either.

"We can't set the castle on fire, because everyone is still in here," Jasper, practical as always in these situations, commented when the floor was filled with pieces of white, marble corpses.

"No," Carlisle answered, "we have to leave them here and come back later. The wolves need our help first. Besides, the guards who were after Edward will be back within an hour. We need to hurry. We are strong, but probably not strong enough."

"So we are dead anyway," Jasper nodded, "even if we do leave on time, they will follow us and find us." The power of positive thinking.

"Not without me," Demetri silently added, "they need me to track you down. And I won't be there for them." He looked at me and smiled kindly but sadly.

"Thank you," I told him, knowing that those two words could never be enough to express the gratitude that I felt toward him.

"I'm glad I could be of any help, Alice, you know that," Demetri answered, "I haven't been really happy with the Volturi for a little time now, and you just gave me the chance to get away. It should be me who's thanking you."

"Could we finish this conversation somewhere else, please?" Japser said just a bit sharply and put his arm around my waist, "there are some adolescent wolves in the room next to ours, fighting hard for us. We should help them."

"Jasper is right," Esme added, "we can't let them get hurt because of us."

Jasper let go of my waist but then grabbed my hand and pulled me to the exit of the ballroom – or what was left of it- while looking just a bit angrily at Demetri. Demetri didn't deserve that attitude, for he had behaved extremely nice and in a gentleman kind of way. Jasper shouldn't behave like this because of his petty jealousy. On the other hand, I couldn't blame him either, because I thought it was incredibly sweet, and, one of the major reasons, I hadn't seen him enough lately and I missed him like crazy. There was no way that I could get irritated by Jazz right now.

The moment we left the room, no one was a stand-in pillar anymore, and the ceiling collapsed with such an incredible force, that big clouds of dust threw us forward, right into the next fight, between the vampires and the wolves this time.

We didn't hesitate, but we started to help them immediately. Like said before, the wolves were still really young and inexperienced, yet I had to admit that they were handling this fairly well. Seth was panting in a corner, holding his broken arm, but the rest was all unharmed, even Jacob, who was fighting off three vampires at once ánd trying to get the others away from the hurt Seth. I started to like Jacob really much. He might be rude sometimes, and extremely young and jealous, and he was a prick when Edward was around, but he was gentle as well, and strong and loyal and he wasn't afraid to sacrifice himself for others. I realized that I admired him a little bit. Not that he would ever find out about that, of course.

I helped the wolves, but it wasn't really that necessary anymore. We outnumbered what remained of the Volturi's guard right now, and it was a fight that was easily won. The only thing I had to do was seeing who was about to get hurt and help them. No big deal.

On the other hand, Jasper was behaving as if this was the biggest fight he had ever fought. Really, in the end I thought he had taken down every enemy vampire on his own, leaving nothing to do for the others. Sometimes he was moving so fast that I was sure that even Edward couldn't compete with him. It was strange that he behaved like this; this fight wasn't as big as any of the others he had fought during his long life and usually he stayed a little in the background, protecting me and taking his share of fighting, but also leaving something to do for the others. Now, however, Jasper did so many things at once that I heard Emmett growl impatiently several times, because there was nothing left for him to do anymore. And nothing upset Emmett more than not being able to fight.

When the fight was over, we all went to stand with each other, the wolves on one side of the room, panting while Sam gave them instructions, and me and my family on the other, looking proud and relieved (except for Emmett, who was glaring at Jasper).

"We did it," I heard little Seth Clearwater say, the pain of his broken arm clearly audible in his voice, "we did it mostly without phasing!"

"You did," Embry and Quill said together, "we didn't. We had to phase when we were in the other room. And so did Jake."

"But we are safe now," Sam said serenely, "and I am proud of you." He really did sound as a proud father, a little bit like the way that Carlisle sounded when he spoke to us.

"So, Demetri, what are your plans now?" I asked and I turned to look at him. I caught Jasper's glance and I suddenly understood why Jazz had fought so hard just before. He had been showing off. How ridiculous! Like I could ever fall for anyone else beside him! He knew that, he was just being silly.

"I don't know yet, obviously we can't return to Aro and the others, for I'm afraid they won't like us that much anymore. So…" he turned to Carlisle, "perhaps I could come with you back to your home and then go my own way?"

Esme interfered.

"Demetri, is it, right?" Demetri nodded. "Well then," Esme continued, "you, and of course you too," she looked at Felix, "will be welcome in our home for as long as you wish. You have helped us so much today, risked your life for us and our children and turned your back on your coven… Of course you can come with us."

"We will, thank you," Demetri said and smiled.

"Excellent," Emmett said, "then at least I will have some Volturi to fight after this fight. I was already afraid that after Jasper saving the day just now, there wouldn't be any left for me. But there is also Felix…" He grinned at the dark-haired vampire who was very close to his size. It would be an even match, although I already knew what the outcome was going to be. I grinned when I realized that that outcome wouldn't make Emmett happy.

"I except the challenge," Felix said and showed his teeth, though in a playful manner, "what is your name? I want to know the names of those I defeat."

"So overconfident!" Emmett growled friendly, "but that confidence will be gone soon. My name is Emmett the fearless."

We all laughed at the silly-ness for a moment. I could see that Felix and Emmett were going to be great friends. That was odd.

"We have to get Bella and get out of here, before the other guards come back. We have to be on a plane then already," Rosalie said, and everyone was serious again. We were all flying high now we had won this battle, but it wasn't over yet. Rose was right, the bad things weren't over yet. We had to leave immediately.

"Let's go. Sam, we need to get out of here," I said as I turned to the wolves, "Jacob, where did you hide-"

A high pitched shriek sounded from a couple of rooms away, loud enough to hear, even for humans, who were not even present in the room at the moment. The moment we heard the scream, Jacob and I screamed "Bella!" at the same time, finishing my question in a strange way.

I was already running before the echo of the scream had completely died away, and Jacob was moving next to me. I didn't bother using doors, but I just ran through walls to make myself go faster.

"Bella! Bella? Where are you, are you alright?" Jacob screamed next to me. I looked around and saw that not only Jacob was with me, but Jasper was there, with Felix moving faster and faster than us with every step.

"What's wrong?" Felix shouted at me. I closed my eyes and tried to see Bella's future. There was none. The powerful vision took me by surprise, stopping me in my tracks. I felt that my mouth was hanging open, my eyes were wide with fear for the best friend whom I loved with my whole heart. I knew that this wasn't the best reaction to a vision like this. My visions were there to warn me for what was coming, so I could try to change it. And vampires who were as old and well-trained as I was, shouldn't be surprised and taken over so much by things like this. We had to be well-controlled. The problem was that I had been living in the future for too long, and the future was so vivid to me that sometimes it hit me as if it was the present. It was as if Bella was already dead, as if there was nothing left for me to do anymore. Hope vanished. The rush I still felt of winning the battle was gone. This all took me just the tiniest bit of a second to process, enough to make Felix bump into me from behind, throwing me forward with such a force that I flew forward twenty meters.

This was the sign for me to get in control of myself again. I landed lithely on the ground as if Felix had gently nudged me from behind, and immediately found the strength to keep running, to save the future that Bella had fought so hard for, to safe the reason for Edward's existence. If Bella died, our family would fall apart, I knew that. If Bella was killed, we would all be grieved for the rest of our existence. Edward would find a way to follow her, and we would be left behind, alone, torn, grieved… For eternity. Eternity suddenly felt like such a long time to me. An eternity without Bella or Edward… That was almost too hard to think about. I had to save Bella.

"What is it, Alice?" Jasper said, who was standing next to me in an instant, "what did you see?"

"Bella," I choked out, "dead."

Felix growled hard behind me, and we all started running, faster this time. Bella screamed again, louder this time, and we were now close enough to hear the sound of the fabric of her clothes against the ground, making us understand that she was writhing in pain.

We ran through two wooden doors, probably more than ten centuries old, and crushed it in our attempt to be faster. I couldn't help but feeling a bit smug that we were doing such a great job at completely destroying Aro's beloved castle.

We entered a big room, bigger than the ballroom where the ceiling had come down, and lighter too. There was no doubt that this was Aro's private room, because all Aro's favorite paintings were represented somewhere on the walls. Thick red carpets, the color of blood, lay at the cold stone floor, and in the middle of the room, there was a large antique chair, big enough to belong to a king. Of course this was the chair made in the thirteen hundreds for Saint Aro, ruler of Medieval Volterra.

In the chair, the ruler was sitting. He looked up shortly when he saw us, then a smile flickered across his face, and he whispered something in Italian, calling for his guards. I wanted to kill him in that instant, to crush the smug smile that lit his strange paper-like face. But two pair of hands were holding me back: one hot and shaking, one cool and marble; Jacob and Jasper, my two favorite J's.

I wondered shortly why they didn't want me to kill Aro. Yes, I could understand Jasper, because he didn't want me to do anything stupid, but since when was Jacob in control of his anger? Since when was he the one holding _me_ back instead of the other way around?

Then I understood. In front of Aro's chair, lay a limp, pale body.

Bella was lying on her stomach with her face down, so her thick brown hair covered her face completely. But I didn't have to see the expression on her face to understand in what pain she was. Aro's teeth were a strange shade of red; bloodred, and Bella's neck was covered in blood as well.

He had bitten her. He wanted to phase her himself!

One of Aro's feet were at Bella's back, ready to snap it if we came any closer. I understood now why I wasn't allowed to approach him. I could easily kill Aro, but I would kill Bella in the process.

"I decided it was time to do it myself," Aro said calmly, "since you were murdering my family and were not planning to make Bella one of us."

We all didn't answer, we just hissed angrily, trying to control the urge to go to him and kill him.

"It would be quite fair to kill Bella right now, because you have killed so many of mine… But you know, I grew kind of fond of this strange human being."

He paused again, looking at us one by one. Bella shrieked again, a high-pitched shriek this time, going right through my heart, hurting me almost as much as if I was the one in pain.

"I don't know why, but she tends to do that on more of our kind. I am thinking of course of our friend Edward Cullen," Aro said and I snorted at the fake words, "and of the rest of his family," he nodded towards me and Jasper, "and then the pull she has on those werewolves, and, and I could have never foreseen that, even on my family. Felix," Aro's voice was still kind, but there was a cold edge to it that made me shiver, "my dear Felix. You were a loyal member of my guard. I trusted you with my life. And then, in two weeks, this human girl turned your world upside down and you have betrayed me, walked over to the other side… I had never considered you capable of doing such a thing. You are one of them now."

"I saw where my loyalty should have been all along," Felix said. His voice was shaking with anger and something that was probably concern for Bella.

"I see," Aro continued, and paused kindly to wait until another one of Bella's screams was over, "I understand. The power of love is one that is not easy to repress. I only wonder," he paused again, "what makes this human girl so special? So lovable? I know that among humans, she is special too. I saw in Alice's memories how wanted she was among the human boys… And she is not even that pretty or social. What is it that makes her so special that an entire family of vampires and a pack of wolves risk their lives for her? Even I am growing fond of her. I wonder what it is… Perhaps it's her gift. I'm just dying to find out how special she is going to be…"

He looked at us again and continued then.

¨That´s why I decided to change her myself. Before you would kill me, I wanted to know what Bella would be like… And so I did. But I needn´t have been in such a hurry, because my strongest guards are here already anyway. So that means that Bella will be one of us. And you, my dear Alice, whose gift I have longed to have in my family, will too.¨

¨I would never join you, and Bella wouldn´t either, you know that.¨

"Not out of free will, you are right. But I could always force you," Aro said, and the way he said it was so confident that I shivered.

"You can't force us," Jasper said angrily, "we will fight."

"Yeah, as you saw a couple of days ago at the fight between me and Pubble," I said, "you could see that Pub and Alec didn't have any effect on us in the end."

"I never said I needed Féline or Alec to convince you to join us…" Aro said and he smiled in a conspiratorial way, "Alice, you and Edward went to so much trouble last year to keep away your loves from me… But now, you are all here!"

Bella screamed again, more loudly this time, and I knew it was too late to suck the venom out. Bella was becoming one of us, at the worst time possible.

"You won't be able to capture Jasper anymore, Aro," I told him, my words rushing because I knew we were running out of time, "because he is better defended than you are. You are outnumbered."

"Oh, I know that," Aro said, "but the longer I keep you here, the sooner my guards will be back." I knew he had been trying to gain time but I just hadn't found a way to stop him. If one of us moved, he would snap Bella's neck.

My sight suddenly started to blur, giving me a vivid vision of us being surrounded by Aro's guard. We were screwed, I knew. We had fought so hard, we had survived everything, just so we could be defeated by one ancient power-loving maniac. Just when we thought we had won, we found ourselves in a situation worse than before. Was it ever going to stop?

Jasper squeezed my hand gently, because he felt my sudden depressed feelings. He knew what I had seen , and he understood that we were lost. He was supporting me in our last moments together. We both knew, without having to speak about it, that we would both fight to the death. We wouldn't join Aro's coven and we weren't going to get out alive. There was only one option left, and that was dying. And we both wouldn't live without each other. It was the only thing left to do.

I loved Jasper so much. No, what I felt for him couldn't even be defined by the word love. I felt more for Jasper than just love. I coveted him. I needed him. It was wrong to say that he was my second half, because we were both complete persons. But we healed each other's flaws, we filled each other's needs. I was no one. There was only Jasper and I was just a representation of the love I felt. No, I needed stronger words. There were no words for it. Jasper was everything to me. And everything could never be defined in one word.

If Jasper would die, I would too. I wouldn't even have to do my best for it. It was just a case of causality. It happened. If Jasper would disappear, he would just take me with him. No further explanation necessary. And so I would die. I wasn't afraid. Or at least not for myself.

Jasper squeezed my hand again. I wanted to tell him what I felt somehow. That I loved him so much. That we were going to die but that I would love him even when I was dead. That I would miss him still. And that I would find a way somehow to be with him even when we were dead. I hoped Carlisle had been right all along. Perhaps there was a heaven where Jasper and I would be together. I wanted Jasper to know all this. But how?

Jasper smiled encouragingly in my peripheral view, and I knew that he had understood. He nodded silently with solemn eyes and I knew he wanted to tell me the same thing. That he was saying goodbye. I put as much love in my look as I could and wished I could hold him there forever, caught in my glance. I would have been happy that way.

Then, suddenly, his face disappeared from my view, another vision came up.

No way! That was impossible!

Wasn't it?

Was it?

There was hope in my heart again. I looked away from Jasper's intense eyes and focused on Aro again. I tried to keep my face as grim as it was before, but I could feel a smile hiding under the surface, fighting to find his way to my face. Hope was a dangerous thing. It made people forget there was still risk. That it was still dangerous. It made them forget that hope was something hypothetical. Things could still go wrong.

I was aware of the fact that the hope was doing the same thing to me now as well. Just a moment ago, I had accepted the fact that I was going to die. There hadn't been any hope left in my body, so I had embraced my inevitable death. For me it had not been bad. It was just a fact.

Now after I had seen my vision, after Edward had replaced my death wish for hope, I didn't want to die anymore. I was going to fight as hard as I could. For Jasper and for me. For Bella. For Carlisle and Esme. I would make sure we were going to live. And that all because of Edward. But he should hurry. There wasn't much time left before Aro's guard would be here.

But I trusted Edward. I knew he would be on time. For Bella.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Jasper raise his eyebrow subtly and I knew that he wondered why suddenly my mood had changed so drastically. He felt my hope. And he understood. He smiled.

"So, what are your plans with us, then?" I asked Aro, to keep him busy.

"I want to train Bella so she will stay with us," he simply answered.

"And you think she will just follow your orders and do as you say? Alec has no power over her."

"Like I said, I only need to capture Edward."

"You make it sound like that is easy," I answered, my eyebrows raised.

"He will come automatically when he finds out that Bella is here in trouble. Just you wait, little Alice," Aro said and smiled kindly.

"Oh, trust me," I said, my voice full of dark anticipation, "we don't have to wait that long."

"What do you mean, Alice?" Aro asked, and his voice sounded eager, "what did you see?"

I counted to four in my head and then answered serenely: "this."

Before Aro had time to look at what I was looking, Edward had crushed the door completely, and covered the distance to Aro's chair in less than the blink of an eye. His foot kicked Aro of his chair and that was the sign for everyone to move at once. The wolves were too surprised to move for a moment, but Jasper and me had seen this coming and Jacob was over his surprise soon as well.

We all moved in unison, banging Aro into the wall. Jacob followed him and tore his head of his chest with an awful screeching sound, like old metal being torn into shreds. As Jacob finished off Aro, Jasper went to check for a way out, Embry and Quil ran back to the ballroom to get Carlisle and Sam and the others.

Edward picked Bella up from the floor, silently caressing her hair. His face was outraged and torn, but gentle at the same time. He knew it was too late for Bella to stay human, and Edward felt guilty because of that. On the other hand, he was a little bit glad that Bella was turning into one of us, and he was feeling guilty because of that. Then, he knew that she was in pain and that he couldn't have saved her that pain and he felt guilty because of that. But he was genuinely happy that she was still alive though, and he felt guilty because of that as well. It must suck to be Edward.

"Edward, I'm so glad you came," I told Edward.

"Yes, Alice, but look! I'm… This… How…"

"No time. We have to leave! We have got only ten minutes left before the guard arrives."

Jasper came back at that exact same moment and we all started to dart for the exit. We ran as fast as we could, knowing that there was still a fairly good chance that we would still be too late.

I looked around and counted everyone. My family was complete. The pack was complete. Felix and Demetri were there. We were complete. We had no time to lose.

"Wait!" Jasper suddenly screamed, "we have to burn the place!" We reached the main exit that came out on the square. It was a good thing that it was dark, so there weren't many people there.

Demetri disappeared out of my sight, running into a restaurant and coming out only seconds later with three jerry cans. Oil. I smiled.

"Good thinking, Demetri!" I said. Even now, Jasper found the time to be petty and he grimaced. Odd Jasper. As if I could ever love anyone else than him.

I helped Demetri to wet the wooden front door of the castle with the baking-oil and then got a lighter out of my pocket and lit it. The flames started immediately, growing bigger and bigger in two mere seconds.

"Now let's GO!" Sam ordered and we all ran away. We ran through the narrow streets, probably going too fast for people to notice. Perhaps there were people sitting on their balconies, wondering where that odd breeze suddenly came from.

Edward ran the faster than everyone, even though he was carrying Bella, and I pitied him. This was so not what he had wanted for Bella. I knew how much pain Bella was in (she wasn't screaming anymore, I wondered why!) and I knew how much pain that pain would cause Edward.

We reached the city gates within a minute, the wolves arrived a bit later.

"We have to steal cars," I said to the others, "we can't go back to Florence to get a plane, because Alec and Jane would expect that. Let's go to Rome, fly to Amsterdam and then go back to Washington."

"Good idea, Alice," Carlisle said, "let's hope it will work."

"I have got a fairly good idea that it will," I said, "call it a hunch…" I pointed conspiratorially at my head and grinned.

We were safe.

**--------------------------------------------**

**Sorry again for the way-too-long-ness :P Hope you liked it nonetheless. **

**I know I did.**

**Read the epilogue if you like the feel-good-ending (many people asked me for the happy ending, so I made one) but if you're content with this ending, then don't. If you want to know what happens to Bella, though, you should read the epilogue.**

**Have a nice day, all of you!**

**Xxx Eline**


	9. epilogue : happily ever after

**Epilogue**

**-**

**~Happily ever after~**

In the end, everything was alright. When I looked back at the days when we were in Italy, I sometimes wondered _how_ exactly everything had turned out alright. We had had so much luck!

"Beat ya there!" I heard Emmett yell at Felix in the garden. They had found out that they were equals when it came to fighting, and so they found different ways to compete with each other. Right now, they tried to find out who was faster… Emmett had won. That was good, because it meant that his mood would be good for the following days.

"Do you think they are almost here?" I asked Jasper, who I was sitting against.

"I think you know that the best, Alice," Jasper sighed theatrically, with a hint of a smile in his voice, "you shouldn't ask me about the future."

"But it's so lame that I always have to come up with all good answers," I answered dramatically, "it's so boring to know that I am the most genius and talented one in the family. I think you deserve a chance as well."

Jasper tousled my hair playfully.

"Hey!" I yelled, "careful with the haircut! It cost me three hours and three-thousand dollars to get it this way!" I jumped up and checked my hair in the mirror. Yes, it was still perfect. That was good.

"I could say a lot of things about women spending too much time and money on how they look, but I have got the feeling that this isn't the right time," Carlisle said, from behind the wall in his office.

"You are right," I answered him and he laughed.

"Aww," I said again, "they need to be here! I want to get Bella dressed right now!"

"She doesn't even need make-up anymore, Alice," Jasper sighed, "you are going to have to find a new hobby."

"Do you have any idea of how much hair she has?" Alice said, "only the haircut is going to take me like two and a half hours."

"I'm sure they'll be here any minute," Jasper said.

"Me too," I said, "in one minute, and thirty-three seconds. But what fun is there in complaining if I already know that?"

"You confuse me," Jasper laughed and shook his head.

I counted in my head and then heard a car riding towards the house, and someone getting out so fast, that it could only be one of us.

"Alice!" Bella screamed.

"No!" I yelled back, horrified as I saw in my head what she was going to tell me.

"Alice! You annoy me! You can't react shocked before I told you what is going to shock you!" Bella answered, running into my room. She looked gorgeous. She was already wearing the dress I bought her, and her hair was already done.

"I am so sorry, Alice, but Sue and Leah really wanted to do my hair! I'm so sorry!"

For a moment, I wanted to pretend that I was angry, but then I felt a smile cross my face.

"They did a great job, Bella. You look absolutely beautiful. You're going to dazzle Edward so much that he will forget to say yes at the right moment."

"If he does that, I am afraid I will have to be very angry with him," Bella answered relieved. She smiled happily.

I was so happy that Bella had turned out to be such a great vampire. First of all, she looked extremely beautiful. Not as beautiful as Rosalie of course, but beautiful enough to make people gasp when she walked by. That was another great thing: she could just walk next to human beings without being unable to control herself. She was so talented at controlling her thirst, that within the three months after her transformation, her eyes were already turning gold.

Bella had been in pain the entire journey back home, so we were forced to buy a private jet. Her pain tore Edward apart and we had been afraid that this time, he would really go berserk. Luckily, he remained calm and strong and he kept murmuring at Bella, things that were too private to share. Three days later, Bella had opened her eyes, crimson and beautiful, she had sat up, stared at all of us, then she had thrown herself at Edward and they spent the rest of the night kissing and touching each other's face. It had all happened so easily, that all of us had a hard time thinking back of the time when Bella was still human. She was just such a great vampire, it was as if she had been one all along.

And how everything had worked out so perfectly! The peace was restored, because the Volturi were now too weak to attack us here. Edward had thanked Felix for protecting Bella and even though Felix still felt bad about the marriage, he wasn't showing that and he was having a great time. Bella really liked him and they were spending a lot of time together. So were I and Demetri. I liked Demetri as a real friend and Jasper knew how I felt about him and was no longer jealous. We had good contact with the wolves now, of course it was still hard to just be normal to each other, but we didn't dislike each other anymore. No, they even accepted Bella's wish to marry on the beach and allowed all of us to go there. Charlie and Rene knew nothing of all of this, and of course this made Bella sad. But who knew? She was so controlled of herself, perhaps in a while, she could visit them somehow.

And Jacob… Yeah, Jacob. There wasn't much to say about it. He seemed to be the only one getting out of this adventure unhappy. He came to see Bella two times after she had been transformed. But after that, he hadn't returned anymore. It hurt him too much, I knew. It hurt Bella too, but she knew it was for the best.

I worked some more on Bella's hair (it was perfect of course, but I was convinced that I could make her look more perfect than before) and somewhere around six, we got into the car (Jasper and I had bought a white DB9 especially for the occasion) and drove to la Push.

I had decorated the beach the day before, and now, in the light of the sun going down, my decoration, candles and flowers looked really good. It was a good thing that I was so good at designing. I knew that no one could have done a better job. The red of the sunlight made or shadows long and made the sand glow. It was the fairytale ending to a chick lit, only this was true and way more perfect and romantic. The ceremony started, and Bella looked so beautiful, and Edward looked so much like a handsome gentleman…

I watched the ceremony with eyes that stung. I knew that they longed to produce tears but they were unable to. Jasper had his arms around me and I felt completely content. In that instant, I felt whole. Everything was finally perfect.

"Will you, Edward Cullen, take Isabella Marie Swan to be your wife?"

"Yes, I do."

"And will you, Isabella Marie Swan, take Edward Cullen to be your husband?"

"I do."

"Then I now declare you husband and wife."

Those words were enough to bind two people together forever. They marked the end of the age; the age of uncertainty, of pain, of grieve. The age of sort-of-happiness. Now began the time where all was perfect and complete. Where everyone was happy.

Everything was okay. And it was going to stay that way. It was really good to be the psychic.

I looked up into Jasper's eyes and saw there the destiny that I had longed for. Forever with Jasper.

Eternity filled with happiness. I was the luckiest person alive.

**---**

**Hi everyone. So this was the end to my fanfic. It's really hard to write the ending to a story when people have certain expectations, and that's why I hope I did a good job. I know the end is all really sweet and drool-y, but I had to have a happy ending, and this is one, right?**

**I hope you liked my fanfiction as much as I enjoyed writing it. It was a great experience for me to write this, and I have practiced my English a lot. That's great.**

**Then, I want to thank all of you who read, and reviewed my story. Thanks for the support and the compliments, it's really a good way to make me eager to write more.**

**Thanks also to the people who spammed my mailbox with demands to finish this, because it worked. I probably would have stopped earlier if you haven't, so even though you annoyed the crap out of me, it still helped. Thank you :P**

**Then, last but not least, I want to thank Stephenie Meyer for creating this incredible world and all these characters to build fanfictions on. Of course all rights go to her and blablabla but you already know that. I wouldn't even want any rights, because no one can write as well as she can.**

**Then, the last thing I'm going to bore you with: Please, please review this story. I love to read what people think about it (I am mostly here to learn!) and it makes me more eager to write more. (If you want to, that is :P)**

**A good day to all of you and enjoy reading all the other great stories posted on this site! Honestly, there are some amazing writers here!**

**I hope to write something more soon.**

**-XXX- Eline**


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